overcast means covered with clouds; overshadowed; darkened; (meteorology) more than 90% covered by clouds.
overcast is pronounced /ˈəʊvəˌkɑːst/.
Why “overcast” is a great word
Covered with clouds, especially when the sky is a seamless, uniform grey from horizon to horizon. From Middle English overcasten, equivalent to over- (above, across) + cast (to throw, spread). Unlike “cloudy” (which implies scattered or partial cloudiness) or “gloomy” (which describes a psychological shadow), overcast is a precise, clinical term for a celestial condition. It is the muted, pearl-white light of a winter afternoon, the sound of rain beginning as a soft hiss before the drops fall, and the peculiar stillness that settles over a landscape swaddled in cloud—the world rendered in a monochrome of waiting.
Etymology
From Middle English overcasten, equivalent to over- + cast. Compare Swedish överkast.
adj
- Covered with clouds; overshadowed; darkened; (meteorology) more than 90% covered by clouds.
- In a state of depression; gloomy; melancholy.
noun
- A cloud covering all of the sky from horizon to horizon.
- An outcast.
- A place where one roadway crosses another, specifically where an airway was built across the top of another airway for ventilation purposes.
verb
- To overthrow.
- To cover with cloud; to overshadow; to darken.
- To make gloomy; to depress.
- To be or become cloudy.
- To transform.
- To fasten (sheets) by overcast stitching or by folding one edge over another.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.