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Synonyms

oversupply

American  
[oh-ver-suh-plahy, oh-ver-suh-plahy] / ˈoʊ vər səˌplaɪ, ˌoʊ vər səˈplaɪ /

noun

  • oversupplies
    plural
  1. an excessive supply.


verb (used with object)

oversupplied, oversupplying
  1. to supply in excess.

oversupply British  
/ ˈəʊvəˌsəplaɪ /

noun

  1. the supply of too much or too many

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to supply too much (material, etc) or too many (goods, people, etc)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of oversupply

First recorded in 1825–35; over- + supply 1

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.

See Examples For:

“Traditionally memory shortages don’t last forever, and memory companies want to get the benefits while they can before the cycle swings to oversupply again,” Gold said.

From MarketWatch Sep. 4, 2026

Vietnam's government warned in early August of the "risks of oversupply and loss of quality control as the planted area is increasing rapidly".

From Barron's Aug. 30, 2026

California wine has already been contending with declining demand and global oversupply issues, leading to downsizing, closures and disposal of tons of grapes.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 26, 2026

This contradicts recent theories of some analysts that the capacity expansion by the likes of SK Hynix might lead to oversupply and lower prices.

From MarketWatch Aug. 5, 2026

We have already alluded to the great oversupply of teachers of schools.

From Village Life in China A Study in Sociology by Arthur H. Smith

The Calgary-based company in 2009 spun off Cenovus Energy Inc. to focus on natural gas as prices for the resource began falling because of oversupplies generated by an onshore drilling boom in North America.

From BusinessWeek Feb. 10, 2011

However, farmers should stop worrying so much about price-deflating oversupplies of beef and other meats.

From Time Magazine Archive

They are strategically underweight cyclicals, such as AI-beneficiary technology hardware companies that they think will eventually face the risk of an oversupplied market.

From MarketWatch Jul. 29, 2026

Macquarie downgrades AGL to underperform from neutral, stating that Australia’s electricity market is structurally oversupplied.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 13, 2026

For one, the markets were oversupplied in 2025, which resulted in fat stockpiles that are still relatively plentiful, albeit declining.

From MarketWatch Jun. 9, 2026

In an interview in February, Fluence CEO Julien Nebrada told Barron’s the battery market will be oversupplied for the next few years.

From Barron's Jun. 3, 2026

Reckon them up and you would have a sufficiency of leading men to outfit plays for every theater in New York, oversupplied as that city is with them.

From The Scrap Book, Volume 1, No. 3 May 1906 by Various

That is a sign that Asics isn’t oversupplying the market with its lifestyle sneakers.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 24, 2026

But memory providers have been reluctant to add more capacity out of fear of oversupplying a typically cyclical market.

From MarketWatch Jan. 27, 2026

But Steur’s lawyers said that the company began to intentionally oversaturate the market, oversupplying law enforcement.

From Seattle Times May 31, 2022

A more intense construction blitz also risks oversupplying the market.

From Reuters May 1, 2022

If the goal of graduate programs is to create highly trained scientists, then these programs are oversupplying the workforce by the hundreds of thousands.

From Salon Apr. 3, 2022

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