oversea
over·sea/ˌoʊ.vɚˈsi/adjective, adverb
oversea is spelled O-V-E-R-S-E-A: 7 letters and 2 syllables (over·sea). It appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 65,913th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, oversea means “Alternative form of overseas” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in oversea?
| Letters | 7: O-V-E-R-S-E-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: over·sea |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 65,913th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is oversea?
Oversea appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 65,913th 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 oversea?
- UK /ˌəʊ.vəˈsiː/
- UK [ˌəʊ̯.vəˈsiː]
- US /ˌoʊ.vɚˈsi/
Oversea has 2 syllables, split over·sea in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-oversee.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with oversea
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: oversee (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: overseas.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with oversea?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as oversea from its last stressed vowel (/i/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
What does oversea mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
UKAlternative form of overseas.
adverb
- 1
UKAlternative form of overseas.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does oversea come from?
From Middle English over-se, over see, ouer sea, from Old English ofer sǣ (literally “over/across (the) sea”); equivalent to over + sea. Compare West Frisian oerseesk, Dutch overzee, German Übersee, Danish oversøisk.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).