overwhelmingly

English

Etymology

overwhelming +‎ -ly

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌəʊ.vəˈwɛl.mɪŋ.lɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adverb

overwhelmingly (comparative more overwhelmingly, superlative most overwhelmingly)

1. In an overwhelming manner; very greatly or intensely.
   • 1963 June, “Second thoughts on Beeching”, in Modern Railways, page 361:

     Gratifying as it is to read such editorials even in the press which supports Mr. Marples' party—and to learn that the G.N. Line's London suburban electrification is at last being given a cost-benefit analysis of the kind which overwhelmingly justified the L.T. Victoria Line [...] but years later than need have been—[...].

   • 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[1]:

     The Conan O’Brien-penned half-hour has the capacity to rip our collective hearts out the way the cute, funny bad girl next door does to Bart when she reveals that her new boyfriend is Jimbo Jones, but the show keeps shying away from genuine emotion in favor of jokes that, while overwhelmingly funny, detract from the poignancy and the emotional intimacy of the episode.

   • 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 5:

     [F]rom the perspective of traditional linguistic landscapes thought, such an overwhelmingly English landscape would normally be considered to exert a negative effect on the vitality and feelings of worth of other languages within this specific multilingual milieu.

2. Mostly; predominantly; almost completely.
   • 2012, Arthur Gillard, Homelessness, page 38:

     Studies on homeless income find that the typical “career panhandler” who dedicates his time overwhelmingly to begging can make between $600 and $1,500 a month.

   • 2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in the Guardian‎^[2]:

     Those recurrent noises in Italy about a move to Internazionale have resurfaced this week. It seems overwhelmingly likely Conte will stay, pay rise pending. But it is a feat of rare political skill to have made himself so unusually vital to the current success.

Collocations

Adjectives often used with "overwhelmingly"

positive, negative, male, female, white, black, powerful, dominant, strong, rural, Democratic, Republican, happy, sad, beautiful, attractive, accepted, rejected, supported, etc.

See also

• Thesaurus:extent

Further reading

• “overwhelmingly”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “overwhelmingly”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.