Overly Common

Origin: Germanic Old English prefix

Overly has 3 different meanings across 1 category:

Definitions

Adjective

Superficial; not thorough; careless, negligent, inattentive.

"The inspector's overly casual review of the safety reports failed to catch several critical flaws."

In plain English: Overly means something is done to an excessive degree, often making it more than necessary or appropriate.

"The cake was overly sweet and difficult to eat."

Adverb

to a degree exceeding normal or proper limits

"too big"

excessively overly to a fault too

To an excessive degree.

"The teacher scolded the student overly harshly for a minor mistake."

Example Sentences

"The cake was overly sweet and difficult to eat." adj

"The movie was overly long and made me lose interest halfway through." adj

"His reaction to the news felt overly dramatic for such a minor event." adj

"Don't be overly critical of your child when they make small mistakes." adj

Origin

Overly is formed by combining the word over with the adverbial suffix -ly. This construction simply adds a "-like" or "in an excessive manner" quality to the base word.

Rhyming Words

orly burly curly carly hurly karly parly surly wurly early marly airly girly whirly quirly nearly fairly uberly charly knurly

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