Overturn
verbTo knock or tip something so it falls onto its side or upside down, or to reverse a previous decision or ruling.
How to spell overturn
8 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce overturn
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does overturn mean?
- verbTo knock or tip something so it falls onto its side or upside down, or to reverse a previous decision or ruling.
Overturn in a sentence
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The appeal court could overturn the original verdict.
-
A sudden wave can overturn a small fishing boat.
Where does overturn come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a compound built entirely inside English from the everyday prefix over-, meaning 'completely' or 'so as to fall', and the verb turn. The turn half has a layered history: Old English turnian and tyrnan came from the Latin tornare, meaning 'to turn on a lathe', which in turn rested on the Greek tornos, a tool for drawing circles. The combined form overturn appeared in Middle English around the 1300s, first describing the literal act of tipping something so it rolled or fell upside down. From that physical picture the figurative sense grew naturally: just as you flip an object over, a court or a vote can flip a decision into its opposite. Because the spelling is simply over plus turn with no letters dropped or doubled, the only real trap is remembering it is one solid word rather than two.
How the word is built
- over- (above, completely)
- turn (to rotate, from Old English turnian)
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