overly
/ˈoʊvɚli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.83 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Parents can be overly protective of their children."
- "[…] considering the circumstances of my situation, I saw it would not do for me to look out for an overly young woman, nor yet would it do for one of my ways to take an elderly maiden, ladies of that sort being liable to possess strong-set particularities."
- "It’s nothing short of wonderful how she’s improved these three years, but especially in looks. She’s a real pretty girl got to be, though I can’t say I’m overly partial to that pale, big-eyed style myself."
- "Your race is overly sentimental; it distorts your judgment."
- "This means, at times, long and perhaps overly discursive discussions of other taxa."
- "And this is where the larger problem lies: when states try to enforce impossible bans, everyone loses. 3D printing farragoes have all the hallmarks of the absolute worst kind of ineffectual ban: one which encourages overly draconian laws that carry huge side effects, and that ultimately to have little to no effect."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Germanic *uber Proto-West Germanic *obar Old English ofer Middle English over English over Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -ly English -ly English overly From over + -ly (adverbial suffix).
Usage
Inflected Forms
more overly (comparative)
most overly (superlative)