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overthink

British

/ ˌəʊvəˈθɪŋk /

verb

to spend more time thinking about something than is necessary or productive

"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

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.

"Sometimes you can overthink too much about, oh, we're playing against England, we're playing against West Indies."

From Barron's • Feb. 6, 2026

You can overthink things and overinflate the risks, wonder if fears are plausible and reframing them - it lets me disregard thoughts that are unhelpful, like 'what if I fall?'.

From BBC • Feb. 5, 2026

When looking for the best ways to play the ongoing semiconductor boom this year, investors might not want to overthink things.

From MarketWatch • Jan. 9, 2026

The book is a labor of love and obsession, a search for answers by a philosopher who can, at times, overthink things.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025

“You know what your problem is? You overthink everything.”

From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023