overrun
/ˌoʊ.vɚˈɹʌn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.36 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To defeat an enemy and invade in great numbers, seizing the enemy positions conclusively.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "But news that the North Vietnamese had launched an invasion more akin to the blitzkrieg of Poland than to a Maoist "people's war," and had overrun my old base camp 30 miles up Thunder Road from Saigon, turned my heart to lead."
- "The cathedral square was overrun with tourists."
- "The vine overran its trellis; the field is overrun with weeds."
- "those barbarous nations that over-ran the world"
- "As President Obama turns his attention once again to filling out a cabinet and writing an Inaugural Address, this much is clear: he should not expect to bask in a surge of national unity, or to witness a crowd of millions overrun the Mall just to say they were there."
- "The athlete overran the finish line and kept going."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Germanic *uber Old English ofer- Middle English over- English over- English run English overrun From over- + run.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌoʊ.vɚˈɹʌn/
- British English: /ˌəʊ.vəˈɹʌn/