Overseas

How to spell overseas

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce overseas

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does overseas mean?

1. adverbTo or in a country beyond the sea; abroad.
2. adjectiveRelating to or located in foreign countries across the sea.

Overseas in a sentence

• adverb

  Her parents moved overseas when she was a teenager.

• adjective

  The bank charges a fee on every overseas transaction.

• adverb

  The company sends most of its products overseas for sale.

• adjective

  They expanded into several overseas markets last year.

Where does overseas come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, built from two of the oldest words in the language: 'over', from Old English 'ofer' meaning 'across' or 'beyond', and 'sea', from Old English 'sae' meaning a large body of saltwater. Both halves descend from common Germanic roots, so the word has no Latin or French detour; it was assembled inside English itself. The phrase 'over the sea' had long been used to describe travel beyond Britain's coast, and by the 1580s the tightened single-word form 'oversea' appeared, with the modern 's'-ending 'overseas' becoming standard later. The trailing 's' is the spot that trips writers, since the word can feel singular even though it ends in 's', a relic of the old plural 'over (the) seas'. Because both parts are everyday words, the spelling is far more transparent than its foreign-looking meaning of 'abroad' might suggest.

How the word is built

• over- (across, beyond)
• sea
• -s (plural noun used adverbially/adjectivally)