overburden
/ˌoʊvɚˈbɝdn̩/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.26 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The rock and subsoil that lies above a mineral deposit such as a coal seam, or any other underground feature.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "In reality, the levels of work varied: some internationals seemed overburdened with tasks and responsibility, some seemed underburdened, and some faced apparently just the right amount of work."
- "He said the increase would avoid overburdening taxpayers who have subsidised the railways by £31 billion since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic."
- "Before much progress was made with the inverts, however, the movement became accelerated, and it was decided to lighten the load over the tunnel by removing some of the soil, […]. This reduction in the overburden arrested the movement, and the inverting and centring were completed, and the tunnel opened again to traffic on April 9, 1949."
- "Such rocks have been changed by baking in a terrestrial pressure-cooker. Then they have been disinterred: kilometres of overburden must have been removed."
- "Settari (2002) and Osorio et al. (1999) also suggest that the analysis domain should include overburdens, sideburdens and underburdens for better accommodation of the coupling effects of stress changes and flow."
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 burden English overburden From over- + burden.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌoʊvɚˈbɝdn̩/
- British English: /ˌəʊ̯vəˈbɜːdn̩/