Basic Details
Word: Overwhelmed
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Past tense of overwhelm: completely overpowered or covered, or filled with such strong feeling that it is hard to cope.
Synonyms: swamped, flooded, overcome, overpowered
Antonyms: unaffected, calm
How to Spell Overwhelmed
Syllables: o - ver - whelmed
Tricky part: Whelm starts with wh, though the h is not heard. Students also add an extra e between l and m.
Watch out for: overwelmed, overwhelemed, overhwelmed
Memory tip: Whelm begins like whale. Picture a whale-sized wave rolling over you, and you will keep the wh.
Usage Examples
Example 1: The tiny town was overwhelmed by tourists during the festival.
Example 2: I felt overwhelmed by the number of chapters left to revise.
Example 3: She was overwhelmed with joy when her grandparents arrived.
Fun Fact
Underwhelmed, meaning not impressed at all, was made up in the twentieth century as a joke on overwhelmed.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Choose the correctly spelt compound word:
a) overwhelmed
b) thunderstrom
c) undergrouth
d) overcrouded
Show answer
a) overwhelmed. Over joins whelmed with nothing lost, while crowded, growth and storm are misspelt in the other three.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word overwhelmed as it is used in the sentence:
The small bakery was overwhelmed by the flood of orders before Diwali.
a) delighted
b) unaffected
c) bored
d) swamped
Show answer
d) swamped. A shop that gets far more orders than it can handle is swamped.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
When the results were read out, Arjun was so overwelmed that he could only smile and hug his coach, who had believed in him all year.
a) results
b) believed
c) overwelmed
d) coach
Show answer
c) overwelmed. The silent h after w has gone missing from whelmed.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A student overwhelmed with homework feels ____.
a) that there is too much to cope with
b) sleepy after a long holiday
c) proud of finishing early
d) bored because there is nothing to do
Show answer
a) that there is too much to cope with
2. A wave that overwhelmed a boat ____.
a) pushed it gently to shore
b) covered it completely
c) lifted it into the air
d) missed it by a metre
Show answer
b) covered it completely
