Overload

How to spell overload

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce overload

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does overload mean?

1. verbTo put too great a load or burden on something or someone.
2. nounAn excessive amount of something, especially a burden greater than can be handled.

Overload in a sentence

• verb

  Do not overload the washing machine or it will leave the clothes dirty.

• noun

  The sudden overload of emails after the holiday took her two days to clear.

• verb

  Too many appliances on one socket can overload the circuit and trip the fuse.

• noun

  The power grid suffered an overload during the heatwave and several streets lost electricity.

Where does overload come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent compound built from two native English elements. The first part, over-, comes from the Old English ofer, meaning 'above' or 'beyond', and in compounds it carries the sense of 'too much' or 'in excess'. The second part, load, traces back to the Old English lād, which originally meant a way, a journey, or a course; only later did it come to mean the burden one carries along that way, a shift that also gave us the related word 'lode' as in a vein of ore. Joined together, the word literally describes putting on more than something can carry, and it appears in English from around the seventeenth century, first for physical burdens and later for electrical circuits, work demands, and information. Because both halves are ordinary Old English words, the spelling holds no real surprises: it is simply 'over' followed by 'load', with no doubled or silent letters to trip up the writer.

How the word is built

• over- (too much, excessive)
• load (Old English lād: a carrying, burden)