override

American  

[oh-ver-rahyd, oh-ver-rahyd] / ˌoʊ vərˈraɪd, ˈoʊ vərˌraɪd /

verb (used with object)

• overrides,
  present (3rd person singular)
• overrode,
  past
• overridden,
  past participle
• overriding
  present participle

1. to prevail or have dominance over; have final authority or say over; overrule.

   to override one's advisers.

2. to disregard, set aside, or nullify; countermand.

   to override the board's veto.

3. to take precedence over; preempt or supersede.

   to override any other considerations.

4. to extend beyond or spread over; overlap.

5. to modify or suspend the ordinary functioning of; alter the normal operation of.

6. to ride over or across.

7. to ride past or beyond.

8. to trample or crush; ride down.

9. to ride (a horse) too much.

10. Fox Hunting. to ride too closely behind (the hounds).

---

noun

• overrides
  plural

1. a commission on sales or profits, especially one paid at the executive or managerial level.

2. budgetary or expense increase; exceeding of an estimate.

   work stoppage because of cost overrides.

3. an ability or allowance to correct, change, supplement, or suspend the operation of an otherwise automatic mechanism, system, etc.

4. an auxiliary device for such modification, as a special manual control.

5. an act of nullifying, canceling, or setting aside.

   a congressional override of the president's veto.

6. Radio and Television Slang. something that is a dominant or major facet of a program or series, especially something that serves as a unifying theme.

   an entertainment series with a historical override.

override British  

/ ˌəʊvəˈraɪd /

verb

1. to set aside or disregard with superior authority or power

2. to supersede or annul

3. to dominate or vanquish by or as if by trampling down

4. to take manual control of (a system that is usually under automatic control)

5. to extend or pass over, esp to overlap

6. to ride (a horse) too hard

7. to ride over or across

---

noun

1. a device or system that can override an automatic control

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• overrides
  plural

Participles

• overriding
  present
• overridden
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• override
  simple
• overrides
  simple
• have overridden
  perfect
• has overridden
  perfect
• am overriding
  progressive
• are overriding
  progressive
• is overriding
  progressive
• have been overriding
  perfect progressive
• has been overriding
  perfect progressive

Past

• overrode
  simple
• had overridden
  perfect
• was overriding
  progressive
• were overriding
  progressive
• had been overriding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will override
  simple
• will have overridden
  perfect
• will be overriding
  progressive
• will have been overriding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of override

before 900; Middle English overriden to ride over or across, Old English oferrīdan. See over-, ride

Explanation

You can override or reject a decision if you're more powerful than the person who originally made the decision. And Congress has the power to override or nullify the Presidential veto if they have a two-thirds vote. The word override can be used in a number of contexts. You can override or ride on top of the grass. You can override a horse, or ride it too hard. An army can override or dominate the enemy in a war. And a judge can override or set aside a decision in court. Regardless of which meaning you're using, remember that the thing doing the overriding always has the upper hand.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

override overrides overrode overridden overriding

Boeing and companies like Honeywell studied technology that could override pilot commands.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

For years, technology stocks have been riding a wave of AI-inspired momentum powerful enough to override macroeconomic concerns, entirely due to those companies’ strong earnings growth and favorable profit outlooks.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 27, 2026

But there is growing concern that AI companies are increasingly developing models that can easily override the safeguarding systems of banks and financial centres.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

If you have legal custody, parent information will be required, though you can contact the colleges to ask for a dependency override.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026

The needs of the windmill must override everything else, he said.

From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell

"Amazon overrides and replaces the actual auction results with higher prices set by Amazon to increase its profits," says a complaint filed in the company's home state of Washington.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

The court’s authority under the Rome Statute, the judges ruled, overrides immunity accorded heads of state under treaties such as the Vienna Convention, which governs diplomatic relations between governments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

But according to the research of professor Richard Hasen, the rate of congressional overrides has steadily decreased over the years as Congress becomes slower and less productive with each passing term.

From Slate ● Jul. 6, 2026

Breast cancer isn’t just a ‘pink’ disease; for men with a family history or genetic predisposition, a mammogram can be a lifesaving tool that overrides social stigma.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026

I should be filtering my thoughts, but my anger overrides my fear.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed

UnitedHealthcare overrode the prior authorization about 48 hours later, according to Noonan.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

One study found that Congress used to overturn several opinions practically every term, including a particularly effective 1991 Congress that overrode eight Supreme Court decisions.

From Slate ● Jul. 6, 2026

Last year, researchers at the UK's AI Security Institute found jailbreaks that overrode safeguards across a range of harmful requests in every AI system it tested.

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

Concerns about a more abrupt job-market swoon overrode jitters about sticky inflation last month, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated this week that that balance of concerns hasn’t changed during the recent data blackout.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025

“There may have been waiting thieves or a guard who saw me as I bore you away. Concern for your life overrode my caution. I am sorry.”

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

But it was a few, not a majority, and their fears were overridden by an originally concerned J. Robert Oppenheimer, the project’s director, after consulting with other scientists and reviewing their calculations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Cutler said this has a lower likelihood of being overridden by courts, noting Trump's top trade official Jamieson Greer had carefully navigated procedural requirements before imposing duties.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s vice president of AI software, said on X that the driver had manually overridden the system by “by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.”

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026

"Over a dozen Reform branches have contacted me, stating that they have been replaced, overridden, and disrespected by Zia Yusuf's headquarters team," he added.

From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2025

And she pushes past him, his authority overridden.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

But as soon as the cast is set in motion, the overriding impression is that of a manifesto springing into a college vaudeville.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

But there must be valid federal law that actually does the overriding.

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2026

The overriding point isn’t that a 30-year-old should move to any particular city.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

This is what sports have become in the replay era: overriding your own eyes and common sense in favor of digital forensics and wonky clarifications that arrive long after the stadium has cleared out.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

He recorded the moment in his journal, leavening his relief with the one overriding concern that had lent urgency to the work of all the atomic scientists of those years.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Related Words

• abrogate
• annul
• nullify
• quash
• reverse
• revoke
• veto