overwhelming
/ˌoʊvɚˈwɛlmɪŋ/adjective, noun, verb
overwhelming is spelled O-V-E-R-W-H-E-L-M-I-N-G. The wrong spelling people search most is overwelming: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 16 of all searches for the word. Overwhelming is an adjective meaning “Overpowering, staggering, or irresistibly strong”.
How many letters and syllables are in overwhelming?
| Letters | 12: O-V-E-R-W-H-E-L-M-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,230th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, overwelming, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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).
How do you spell overwhelming?
Overwhelming is spelled O-V-E-R-W-H-E-L-M-I-N-G. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 14 of the searches for overwhelming in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is overwhelming?
Overwhelming appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th 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 overwhelming?
- UK /ˌəʊvəˈwɛlmɪŋ/
- UK /ˌəʊvəˈʍɛlmɪŋ/
- US /ˌoʊvɚˈwɛlmɪŋ/
Overwhelming has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-overwhelming.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of overwhelming
- more overwhelming comparative
- most overwhelming superlative
- overwhelmings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does overwhelming mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Overpowering, staggering, or irresistibly strong.
- 2
Very great or intense.
- 3
Extreme.
noun
- 1
A situation of being overwhelmed.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of overwhelm
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Overwhelming in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense overpowering:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | accablant |
| German | überwältigend |
| Portuguese | irresistivelmente forte, exageradamente maior, esmagador, avassalador |
| Spanish | abrumador, agobiante, apabullante, avasallador, arrollador, contundente |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.