overseas
Americanadverb
adjective
-
of or relating to passage over the sea.
overseas travel.
-
situated beyond the sea.
overseas territories.
-
pertaining to countries, associations, activities, etc., beyond the sea.
overseas military service; overseas commitments.
noun
adverb
adjective
-
of, to, in, from, or situated in countries beyond the sea
-
Also: oversea. of or relating to passage over the sea
noun
Etymology
Origin of overseas
before 1150; oversea ( Middle English overse, Old English ofer sǣ; see over-, sea) + -s 3 or -s 1
Explanation
There's no trick to the meaning of overseas. If someone goes overseas, they've gone "over" the "seas" — to a foreign country. When overseas came into use, there were no airplanes, so technically speaking, one traveled "across" or "on" the seas, in a ship. Nevertheless, one was thought to have made it "over the sea," hence overseas. When traveling overseas, make sure your phone works on the network in the country where you're headed. Also, the laws and customs overseas can be very different from the ones we have here, so be careful. What here at home you consider small potatoes legally might be a big deal overseas.
Vocabulary lists containing overseas
Chapter 21: Age of Exploration and Trade
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for October 2–October 8, 2021
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Chapter 27: America and World War II
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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.
“The methods expanded accordingly, from conventional espionage and technology purchases to cyber operations, academic collaborations, talent recruitment, overseas investments, and systematic exploitation of publicly available research,” Hannas said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2026
A recent depreciation, however, means the dollars collected overseas go a longer way to pay domestic costs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2026
Taiwan's Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang said Alice Huang "did indeed enter the country, but she is currently overseas".
From Barron's ● Nov. 11, 2026
U.S. oil companies aren’t short of diesel: domestic refiners already make more than enough diesel to sate the country’s consumption and export more than 1.5 million barrels a day to overseas buyers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2026
It would be reasonable to suppose that Richard Owen’s petty rivalries marked the low point of nineteenth-century paleontology, but in fact worse was to come, this time from overseas.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
