overwhelmed
over·whelmed/ˌoʊvɚˈwɛlmd/adjective, verb
overwhelmed is spelled O-V-E-R-W-H-E-L-M-E-D: 11 letters and 2 syllables (over·whelmed). It appears 7.6 times per million words in written English, the 8,542nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, overwhelmed means “Emotionally overpowered” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in overwhelmed?
| Letters | 11: O-V-E-R-W-H-E-L-M-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: over·whelmed |
| In writing | 7.6 times per million words; the 8,542nd 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 overwhelmed?
Overwhelmed appears 7.6 times per million words in written English, the 8,542nd 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 overwhelmed?
- UK /ˌəʊvəˈwɛlmd/
- UK /ˌəʊvəˈʍɛlmd/
- US /ˌoʊvɚˈwɛlmd/
Overwhelmed has 2 syllables, split over·whelmed in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-overwhelmed.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of overwhelmed
- more overwhelmed comparative
- most overwhelmed superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does overwhelmed mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Emotionally overpowered.
completely overwhelmed
- 2
Carrying a metaphorical burden greater than one can comfortably handle.
He felt overwhelmed by the workload.
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of overwhelm
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).