Dictionary

overwhelmingly en · ADV

Pronunciation

• /ˌəʊ.vəˈwɛl.mɪŋ.lɪ/
• (US) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Germanic *uber Old English ofer- Middle English over- Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp-der. Proto-Germanic *kʷolpós Proto-Germanic *hwalbazder.? Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp-der. Proto-Germanic *kʷólpo- Proto-Germanic *hwalbąder.? Old English hwealf Old English *hwealfnian Old English *hwealmnian? Middle English whelmen Middle English overwhelmen English overwhelm Middle English -ynge English -ing English overwhelming Middle English -ly English -ly English overwhelmingly From overwhelming + -ly.

Meanings

1. In an overwhelming manner; very greatly or intensely.
   • The Conan O’Brien-penned half-hour has the capacity to rip our collective hearts out the way the cute, funny bad girl next door does to Bart when she reveals that her new boyfriend is Jimbo Jones, but the show keeps shying away from genuine emotion in favor of jokes that, while overwhelmingly funny, detract from the poignancy and the emotional intimacy of the episode. 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club:
   • Gratifying as it is to read such editorials even in the press which supports Mr. Marples' party—and to learn that the G.N. Line's London suburban electrification is at last being given a cost-benefit analysis of the kind which overwhelmingly justified the L.T. Victoria Line [...] but years later than need have been—[...]. 1963 June, “Second thoughts on Beeching”, in Modern Railways, page 361:
   • [F]rom the perspective of traditional linguistic landscapes thought, such an overwhelmingly English landscape would normally be considered to exert a negative effect on the vitality and feelings of worth of other languages within this specific multilingual milieu. 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 5:
2. Mostly; predominantly; almost completely.
   • Studies on homeless income find that the typical “career panhandler” who dedicates his time overwhelmingly to begging can make between $600 and $1,500 a month. 2012, Arthur Gillard, Homelessness, page 38:
   • Those recurrent noises in Italy about a move to Internazionale have resurfaced this week. It seems overwhelmingly likely Conte will stay, pay rise pending. But it is a feat of rare political skill to have made himself so unusually vital to the current success. 2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in The Guardian:
   • They found that the quantitative judgments overwhelmingly supported the judgments in the syntax textbook (around 99 percent of the time), and strongly so in the Linguistic Inquiry examples (around 90–95 percent) of the time^([sic]). 2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Preliminaries: Components of Language Structure” (chapter 2), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 49:

Forms

Relateds

extent