overcompensate

Other forms of overcompensate

past tense

overcompensated·

present participle

overcompensating·

third person

overcompensates·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about overcompensate

What does overcompensate mean?

overcompensate means "make up for shortcomings or a feeling of inferiority by exaggerating good qualities". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in overcompensate?

overcompensate has 5 syllables: o-ver-com-pen-sate. The stress falls on "com".

What is another word for overcompensate?

Close synonyms include cover, compensate, over-correct. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is overcompensate a common word?

overcompensate is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.