overlie
over·lie/ˌoʊvɚˈlaɪ/verb
overlie is spelled O-V-E-R-L-I-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables (over·lie). It appears about once in every 23 million words in written English, the 145,125th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, overlie means “To lie over or upon” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in overlie?
| Letters | 7: O-V-E-R-L-I-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: over·lie |
| In writing | about once in every 23 million words; the 145,125th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is overlie?
Overlie appears about once in every 23 million words in written English, the 145,125th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce overlie?
- /ˌoʊvɚˈlaɪ/
Overlie has 2 syllables, split over·lie in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-overlie.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-overlie.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of overlie
- overlies present, singular, he/she/it
- overlying participle, present
- overlay past
- overlain participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does overlie mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To lie over or upon
The new sediment layers overlie the older rock formations.
- 2
To suffocate by lying upon
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does overlie come from?
From Middle English overlien, overliggen, equivalent to over- + lie (“to be reclined”). Compare West Frisian oerlizze, German überliegen, Danish overligge, Swedish överligga, Norwegian overligge.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).