overarching
Americanadjective
-
forming an arch above.
great trees with overarching branches.
-
encompassing or overshadowing everything.
The community's overarching needs are more jobs and better housing.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of overarching
Explanation
When something is overarching, it affects or includes everything. While your novel touches on a lot of subjects and ideas, its overarching theme is the importance of friendship. When it's used figuratively, this adjective describes a quality that influences every single part of something. You can say that your club's overarching interest is the outdoors, or that the overarching goal of your school is to give everyone a solid STEM education. Overarching also literally means "forming an arch shape over something," like the overarching grape vines you pass beneath to enter your friend's garden.
Vocabulary lists containing overarching
Life of Pi
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Masterminds
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arch, archi (chief, most important, rule)
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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.
He also advocates for holding a single overarching UN conference "because the Earth is one" and the crises of climate, biodiversity and pollution cannot be tackled in isolation.
From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026
An interesting knock-on effect of this, and a nod to England's overarching evolution, has been the intensity England have shown as they have attacked.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
That last one is how John solves the season’s overarching mystery, settling one of the story’s defining and tormented relationships into a peaceful place.
From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026
“The overarching lesson for the foreign business community is proceed cautiously and be smart about how you do business within China and who you do it with,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
More important, Makowski says, researchers have little evidence that ancient Peruvians actually believed in a single overarching deity called the Staff God.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
