OVERWHELMING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does overwhelming mean? 

• OVERWHELMING (adjective)
  The adjective OVERWHELMING has 2 senses:

1. so strong as to be irresistible

2. very strong; urgently felt

  Familiarity information: OVERWHELMING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OVERWHELMING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

So strong as to be irresistible

Synonyms:

overpowering; overwhelming

Context example:

an overwhelming majority

Similar:

irresistible; resistless (impossible to resist; overpowering)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Very strong; urgently felt

Synonyms:

consuming; overwhelming

Context example:

overwhelming joy

Similar:

intense (possessing or displaying a distinctive feature to a heightened degree)

 Context examples 

I am about to undertake that task; and it is on that account that I feel so many overwhelming terrors.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

"For me?" gasped Beth, holding onto Jo and feeling as if she should tumble down, it was such an overwhelming thing altogether.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

To try to control the thoughts, you feel an overwhelming urge to repeat certain rituals or behaviors.

(Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, NIH: National Institute of Mental Health)

The picture you have just drawn is suggestive of a rather too overwhelming contrast.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The overwhelming majority of pancreatic carcinomas are adenocarcinomas.

(Pancreatic Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

But the women spoke of the fresh-killed meat he had brought on his back, and this was an overwhelming argument against their unbelief.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

This is my father, and his health is a matter of the most overwhelming importance to me.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Glancing round as I made a suitable reply, I observed that the family effects were already packed, and that the amount of luggage was by no means overwhelming.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He was beaten down to movelessness by an overwhelming sense of his own weakness and littleness.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Caring for someone who has Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be stressful and overwhelming.

(Alzheimer's Caregivers, NIH: National Institute on Aging)