Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use overwhelm in a sentence

20 example sentences · verb, noun

Overwhelm means to engulf, surge over and submerge. Example: “The dinghy was overwhelmed by the great wave.”

Examples of overwhelm by meaning

verbTo engulf, surge over and submerge.

  • The dinghy was overwhelmed by the great wave.

verbTo overpower, crush.

  • In December 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland with overwhelming force.

verbTo overpower emotionally.

  • He was overwhelmed with guilt.
  • Joy overwhelmed her when she realized that she had won a million dollars.
  • But Theon is overwhelmed by the violence all around him, and instead he jumps overboard.2017 July 23, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club

nounThe state or condition of being overwhelmed.

  • The fact is, that full permeation and understanding of an overwhelm or trauma makes it cease as an overwhelm or trauma.2015, Rolf Dane, Deep Clearing, Releasing the Power of Your Mind
  • And what you’re feeling is normal in a dangerous situation — overwhelm and guilt when someone is harmed.2021, Star Trek: Discovery, “Stormy Weather”, season 4, episode 6, spoken by Michael Burnham

More sentences with overwhelm

  • She inhabits the prose’s terrible serenity and glacial horror — the translator’s hand never overwhelms or underperforms.2016 February 2, Porochista Khakpour, “‘The Vegetarian,’ by Han Kang”, in The New York Times. From the entry underperform
  • It was just Wonder Woman whose secret identity threatened to overwhelm and swallow up the heroic reality.2004, Lillian S[ara] Robinson, “The Book of Lilith”, in Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes, New York, N.Y.; London: Routledge, →ISBN…. From the entry Wonder Woman
  • These are very, very big buildings and their sheer massiveness will, in my opinion, overwhelm the existing structure.2006 May 19, Laurence J. Deitch, quotee, “May Meeting, 2006”, in Proceedings of the Board of Regents, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of…. From the entry subterraneanity
  • The long-term burden overwhelms the immediate gratification.2002, Thomas Princen, Michael Maniates, Ken Conca, Confronting Consumption, page 33. From the entry misconsume
  • Certainly the magnitude of megalopolitan or ecumenopolitan problems tends to overwhelm the individual who is a perspective participant.1974, Spenser W. Havlick, The Urban Organism: The City’s Natural Resources from an Environmental Perspective, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 476…. From the entry ecumenopolitan
  • Furthermore, he should not attempt to crowd his stage too much, lest the dramatis personae overwhelm his audience.1963, Sumner Chilton Powell, “Introduction”, in Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town, Wesleyan University Press. From the entry commonwealth
  • Man alive, they'd overwhelm us like an avalanche.c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden…. From the entry man alive
  • Bannon boasted of the ability to overwhelm Democrats and any media opposition through a determined effort to “flood the zone” with initiatives.2025 January 28, Luke Broadwater, “Trump’s ‘Flood the Zone’ Strategy Leaves Opponents Gasping in Outrage”, in The New York Times, →ISSN…. From the entry flood the zone
  • Now that Hoover’s rise to stardom is over, the rising number of Hoover’s haters are beginning to overwhelm “CoHorts,” the name given to her die-hard fans.2023 February 28, Chelsea Peng, “CoHo Hate Club”, in The Pingry Record, volume CXLVIII, number III, Pingry School, page 4. From the entry cohort
  • Thus, impulsivity can be understood as an adaptive response to the contingencies present in an unstable environment rather than a moral failure in which animalistic drives overwhelm human rationality.2020, Joseph Cesario, David J. Johnson, Heather L. Eisthen, “Your Brain Is Not an Onion With a Tiny Reptile Inside”, in Current Directions…. From the entry impulsivity
  • Just as too much scientific evidence and medical detail may overwhelm or underimpress the court, the opinion should not contain too much 'heart-searching' and repetitive reasoning.2020 August 25, Niruj Agrawal, Rafey Faruqui, Mayur Bodani, Oxford Textbook of Neuropsychiatry (Oxford Textbooks in Psychiatry), Oxford…. From the entry underimpress
  • Real connoisseurs know that to nose and taste properly you have to add still water to your tulip-shaped glass so that the alcohol doesn't overwhelm you.2002 October 20, Bob Morris, “Connoisseurship Runneth Over”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry nose
  • Sudden stopping, which could be effected easily by sanding the rails and reversing the driving-gear, was dangerous, because the train might telescope and overwhelm the engine.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 141. From the entry sand

Meaning of overwhelm

  1. verb To engulf, surge over and submerge.
  2. verb To overpower, crush.
  3. verb To overpower emotionally.

Full definition of overwhelm

Questions about overwhelm in a sentence

How do you use overwhelm in a sentence?
Overwhelm is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The dinghy was overwhelmed by the great wave.”
What is a short sentence with overwhelm?
“He was overwhelmed with guilt.”
What does overwhelm mean?
Overwhelm means to engulf, surge over and submerge.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overwhelm (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 overwhelm in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/overwhelm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.