Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use overall in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, adverb, noun

Overall means all-encompassing, all around. Example: “Overall, there is not enough evidence to form a clear conclusion.”

Examples of overall by meaning

adjectiveAll-encompassing, all around.

  • We believe also that a controlled economy cannot be understood without some overall view of the controlling institutions: hence our short studies — shorter by far than the original drafts — of the central administration.1949, W. Keith Hancock, Margaret M. Gowing, British War Economy
  • "The cranium is clearly plesiomorphic in overall form, presenting primitive traits shared by earlier hominins," the authors wrote.2025 September 27, Julia Jacobo, “Million-year-old skull could rewrite timeline of human origin, researchers say”, in ABC News, archived...

adverbGenerally; in general.

  • Overall, there is not enough evidence to form a clear conclusion.
  • While this new measure provided money for research, it also purported to cut spending overall.

adverbConsidering or taking into account everything.

  • The frozen foods side of the business overall saw a loss.

More sentences with overall

  • With a strong finish he ended up in the third-ranked slot overall.From the entry slot
  • The overall plan is well understood, but we still have to work out the particulars.From the entry particulars
  • Scientists have found that handgrip strength is a surprisingly effective proxy measure for overall musculoskeletal health.From the entry handgrip
  • Prince Arthur was Queen Victoria's thirdborn son and her seventh child overall.From the entry thirdborn
  • She was quite worried about her driving test, but overall it was a non-traumatic experience.From the entry non-traumatic
  • All are class acts, but Mary's picture jumps out as the best overall.From the entry jump out
  • The addition of the fight scenes gave the story a little bump near the end, but overall, it bored me.From the entry bump
  • They cook well overall, but their true specialty is pasta.From the entry specialty
  • Overall, experience in the two decades that followed the publication of Dijkstra's letter showed the folly of producing goto-laden code.From the entry goto
  • That character, though colorful, is incidental to the overall plot.From the entry incidental
  • They cook well overall, but their true speciality is pasta.From the entry speciality
  • Writing is a subskill of overall literacy.From the entry subskill
  • Tech stocks trailed behind the overall market today.From the entry trail behind
  • When we tallied up the scores at the end of the game, we were surprised to find that Jack was the overall winner.From the entry tally up
  • "The harvest aid paraquat led to over six times more leaf desiccation and leaf defoliation within 11 days after treatment and was more effective overall than the tribufos harvest aid."From the entry tribufos
  • But the relationship overall, between the pedal cyclist, the ebiker and the pedestrian – well, it’s mixed.2025 January 15, Zoe Williams, “‘Please don’t hit me!’ The battle between ebikers and other cyclists”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry ebiker
  • Anyway, auramaxxing is the same kind of idea, only it's about improving your energy and overall presence.2024 July 17, “Auramaxxing: will this make you more sexually attractive — or just a bit tired?”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian…. From the entry auramaxx
  • But overall, I think the railway delivered very well on my travels.2023 November 29, 'Mystery Shopper', “Does the railway deliver for passengers?”, in RAIL, number 997, page 53. From the entry travel
  • Overall, flexibility, additional income, and freedom were the biggest benefits cited among polyworkers.2023 March 20, Orianna Rosa Royle, “Gen Zers are now 'polyworking' because holding down just one job doesn't pay enough or give them the…. From the entry polyworker
  • Overall, though, this new work suggests that the core idea of enclothed cognition is generally valid.2023 August 25, Emma Young, “Enclothed cognition brushes up well”, in British Psychological Society, archived from the original on 29 Apr…. From the entry enclothed cognition
  • (2) The city 's evaluation value was 0.75, the overall carrying capacity is strong.2021, Fucui Li, Kai Niu, “Evaluation of water resources carrying capacity in Changzhi City Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process”, in Earth…. From the entry Shangdang
  • However, the animation is delightful & overall I enjoyed this X-Menesque Disney family drama.2021 December 26, @Gibboanxious, X, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2026. From the entry X-Menesque
  • We found that superspreading has overwhelmingly contributed to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the city overall.2020 June 2, Dillon C. Adam, Benjamin J. Cowling, “Just Stop the Superspreading”, in New York Times. From the entry superspreading
  • Overall, the effect of green poverty reduction in southern Shaanxi was still not ideal.2020, Yingjuan Yang, Huifeng Xue, “Evaluation of Green Poverty Reduction in Southern Shaanxi Based on Comprehensive Weighting…. From the entry Hanbin
  • Online communities becoming increasingly accostable to their users does not always lead to higher overall activity.2019, Patrick Kasper et al., “Modeling User Dynamics in Collaboration Websites”, in Dynamics on and of Complex Networks III: Machine…. From the entry accostable
  • Overall, the place is, to use the technical term, “a good laugh” and definitely romantic.2019 May 10, Grace Dent, “No. Fifty Cheyne, London SW3: ‘A good laugh’ - restaurant review”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry good laugh
  • Overall, David is cagey when talking about reps, like someone might be while talking about an ex.2018 October 1, Alice Hines, “Meeting David, the God of Counterfeit Sneakers”, in Highsnobiety, archived from the original on 17 Mar 2024. From the entry rep
  • Overall, 59 percent give Trump a thumb down, while 40 percent approve of his job performance.2018 October 25, Max Jaeger, “Americans agree that America is divided”, in New York Post, New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry thumb down
  • Overall, 79 percent of respondents said they ate fast food at least once during the three weeks.2017 July 12, Jay L. Zagorsky, Patricia Smith, “No, poor people don’t eat the most fast food”, in CNN, archived from the original on 09…. From the entry decile
  • The women whose new jobs required pants, overalls, or skirted uniforms broke dramatically with convention.2017, Lynn Dumenil, The Second Line of Defense: American Women and World War I, Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press…. From the entry skirted
  • Overall, this character diversification reflects the polychaetotic or oligochaetotic evolutionary tendencies within this group of F.2015 September 11, “Intraspecific Phenotypic Variation and Morphological Divergence of Strains of Folsomia candida (Willem) (Collembola…. From the entry oligochaetotic
  • Therefore, the duties prescribed in the plan are macroregulations for an overall HII.2015 August 21, Mingli Jiao et al., “Determinants of emergency response responsibility perceptions in the local public health workforce…. From the entry macroregulations
  • Small dig below hairline on neck, some scattered contact marks but overall a lovely milk chocolatey hue.2015, Stack’s Bowers Galleries, The November 2015 Baltimore Auction: World Coins, Ancient Coins & World Paper Money, →OCLC, page 191…. From the entry milk chocolatey
  • The overall look tries very hard to be as Ghibliesque as possible.2015 January 9, Dave Baranyi, “Junketsu no Maria - Cute Witchcraft”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet). From the entry Ghibliesque
  • The overall retention rate of 68 per cent indicates a robust constancy of the linguistic features investigated.2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 124. From the entry constancy

Meaning of overall

  1. adjective All-encompassing, all around.
  2. adverb Generally; in general.
  3. adverb Considering or taking into account everything.

Full definition of overall

Questions about overall in a sentence

How do you use overall in a sentence?
Overall is used as an adjective, adverb and noun. For example: “Overall, there is not enough evidence to form a clear conclusion.”
What is a short sentence with overall?
“Writing is a subskill of overall literacy.”
What does overall mean?
Overall means all-encompassing, all around.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overall (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use overall in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/overall. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.