Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

information overload

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.50 in modern English

Syllables: in-for-ma-tion over-load
IPA

28

Scrabble Score

19

Letters

5

Syllables

12

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The inability to process everything one hears and sees; the availability or supply of an excess of information, or a state of stress which results.

Uncountable

Example Sentences

"One of the men who has pioneered in information studies, Dr. James G. Miller, director of the Mental Health Research Institute at the University of Michigan, states flatly that “Glutting a person with more information than he can process may . . . lead to disturbance.” He suggests, in fact, that information overload may be related to various forms of mental illness."
"Some news executives attribute this youthful apathy to information overload and the explosion of media options."
"But it's often hard to discern the forest for the archaeological trees, partly because archaeology is now so specialized, and also because all of us suffer from information overload about the past dumped on us by the Web, newspapers, TV specials, and all the apparatus of modern global communications."

Etymology

Popularized by Alvin Toffler in Future Shock (1970).

Usage

Uncountable

Phrases

information fatigue information fatigue syndrome sensory overload

Frequently Paired Words

information fatigue information fatigue syndrome infostress infotrash sensory overload

Synonyms

infobesity infoglut infoxication

Questions

What does information overload mean?: The inability to process everything one hears and sees; the availability or supply of an excess of information, or a state of stress which results.
Where does information overload come from?: Popularized by Alvin Toffler in Future Shock (1970).

How to pronounce information overload

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “information overload”.
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