overachiever

American  

[oh-ver-uh-chee-ver] / ˌoʊ vər əˈtʃi vər /

Also over-achiever

noun

• overachievers
  plural

1. a person who performs better or achieves more than people are generally expected to, often because of high ambition, pressure from family, etc..

   Ever the overachiever, he reached his sales goal for the year a whopping five months early.

2. a person who performs, especially academically, above the potential indicated by tests of their mental ability or aptitude.

   We found many overachievers with modest SAT scores who nevertheless achieved high GPAs across a variety of majors.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• overachievers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of overachiever

First recorded in 1935–40; over- ( def. ) + achieve ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

overachiever overachievers

Agoura, under first-year coach Adam Goldstein, is another overachiever.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026

Syndicated episodes of “Martha Stewart Living” upheld the attainability of elegance and the value of precise execution, appealing to my inner overachiever.

From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2026

If the bare minimum is enough for you to be seen and recognized for solid work, there might be no need to become an office overachiever.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025

If you’re going to be an overachiever, be one like Schuyler Peters.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 21, 2024

She’s in the one and only elective class she has all year, because she’s an overachiever.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

We've even seen how results of teams eventually fall in line with their underlying numbers over the course of this season, with early overachievers Aston Villa and Sunderland.

From BBC ● May 8, 2026

A lot of us big readers are overachievers or rewards driven.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 19, 2026

A team of overachievers filled with a roster of best friends combined chemistry, determination and toughness to overcome all odds.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2025

Like any friend group, “Next Gen NYC” is filled with overachievers and underachievers; people who have family money and people who work long hours, scraping by to make their way in the big city.

From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2025

Dwaine was proud of his son, who had started at defensive tackle for Permian in 1987 when the team, the biggest bunch of overachievers ever, had gone all the way to the state semifinals.

From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger