overcompensation
Americannoun
-
a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
-
compensation to an unnecessary or unreasonable degree.
The pay was overcompensation for the work done.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of overcompensation
1915–20; over- + compensation; as psychoanalytic term, translation of Überkompensation, coined by Alfred Adler
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But it also has a strong whiff of overcompensation.
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2024
Paxton said he rushed his return from the back injury, his mechanics were not what they needed to be, and the overcompensation led to the arm troubles.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 18, 2021
Carlton’s erudition and country-club style panic Will, whose own approach to Blackness becomes an overcompensation for his proximity to affluence.
From New York Times ● Oct. 14, 2020
The loud voices get even louder because on a basic level they know they are not even the majority, thus the overcompensation.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2020
After what I’ve been through, some overcompensation is to be expected.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
