overlord

American  

[oh-ver-lawrd] / ˈoʊ vərˌlɔrd /

noun

• overlords
  plural

1. a person who is lord over another or over other lords.

   to obey the will of one's sovereign and overlord.

2. a person of great influence, authority, power, or the like.

   the overlords of industry.

---

verb (used with object)

1. to rule or govern arbitrarily or tyrannically; domineer.

overlord British  

/ ˈəʊvəˌlɔːd /

noun

1. a supreme lord or master

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• overlordship
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• overlords
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of overlord

Middle English word dating back to 1150–1200; see origin at over-, lord

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

overlord overlords

Mr. Washington, star of Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman,” has one of the richer roles, as the tech overlord who with supple suavity plays upon his friends’ weaknesses and sensitivities to achieve his ends.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

In comparing those statistics with those of its former colonial overlord, Hartnett, Bank of America’s chief equity strategist, found an emphatic stateside outperformance on almost all fronts.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 3, 2026

There’s even a plot point involving an algorithmic overlord that creates randomly generated armies: “Ghostbusters” with AI slop.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026

"I think Your Idol is such a banger," says Kang about song the Saja Boys sing while feeding the souls of their audience to the evil overlord Gwi-Ma.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2025

At the moment Tikal was divided, Kaan conquered it, forcing both brothers to recognize the other city as their overlord.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

But there are technical challenges: AI agents make lots of decisions very fast, and so it's hard for their human overlords to monitor exactly which values are being followed and which aren't.

From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026

Our tech overlords are planning for conscious AI to conquer the cosmos.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 1, 2026

The House wasn’t in session, which is often the best time to check in on staff who don’t have their overlords hanging around.

From Salon ● May 29, 2026

Major League Baseball introduced its automated ball-strike challenge system about six weeks ago and, already, there is one undeniable truth about the game’s new electronic overlords: The robot umpires have it in for pitchers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026

If anything, the Czechs hated their Nazi overlords.

From "Prisoner B-3087" by Alan Gratz

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---