Home › Words › O › overstressoverstressoverstress means to place excessive emphasis on something.EtymologyFrom over- + stress.verbTo place excessive emphasis on something.To place excessive physical stress on something, especially to such an extent that it deforms or breaks.e.g.“[...] the complete frame will withstand a standing and buffing load of 200 tons without overstressing.” — 1960 July, “The first G.E.C. 25 kV. a.c. electric locomotives for B.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 421:To stress someone excessively.e.g.““I think we better not catch him anymore right now,” said the vet. “We don’t want to overstress him.”” — 1989, Don C. Reed, “The Showdown”, in The Dolphins and Me, New York, N.Y.: Scholastic, published January 1990, →ISBN, page 41:Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).Words closest in meaningBy meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.overemphasis 80% match — Excessive emphasis. vs overstress →overstressful 77% match — Excessively stressful. vs overstress →overstressed 76% match — Excessively stressed. vs overstress →overaccent 71% match — To accent too much. vs overstress →emphasize 70% match — To stress, give emphasis or extra weight to (something). vs overstress →hyperstress 69% match — Excessive stress. vs overstress →overaccentuate 69% match — To accentuate too much. vs overstress →overfocus 68% match — To focus excessively (on a particular subject to the exclusion of others) vs overstress →