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overview

American  
[oh-ver-vyoo] / ˈoʊ vərˌvju /

noun

  • overviews
    plural
  1. a general outline of a subject or situation; survey or summary.


overview British  
/ ˈəʊvəˌvjuː /

noun

  1. a general survey

"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 overview

First recorded in 1540–50; over- + view

Explanation

An overview is a general summary of something. An overview gives the big picture, while leaving out the minor details. If you take a class on American history, the class will be an overview: it will sum up the most important events that have happened, such as famous elections, national disasters, major wars, and economic trends. When writing an overview, you have to leave out a lot of details, because you're focusing on major points. You can give an overview of a company's business, of a sport team's season, or even of your own life.

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Vocabulary lists containing overview

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:

It also would broaden public insight into how lease agreements with the port affect the local workforce by requiring any leaseholder extending a lease or lease applicant to disclose overview on its employment.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

JPMorgan highlighted the trend in their weekly retail activity trading overview published late on Wednesday.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026

Interwoven with Mr. Tommasini’s engaging overview of Anderson’s life are astute discussions of her recordings and repertoire.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

"Only studies like ours offer an overview of these traditions which bear witness to genuine know-how and diverse traditions."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026

Then we focus on writing a business plan, which is a description and overview of a company’s services.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

Advertising spending is resilient, and the AI overviews Google has added to its search engine are boosting traffic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

What’s more, marketing professionals are already studying how LLMs rank sources to ensure that their content is picked up in A.I. overviews.

From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2026

AI search engine Perplexity has been testing ads in the United States since 2024, while Google is also testing ads in the AI "overviews" its namesake search engine has been offering since last year.

From Barron's ● Feb. 15, 2026

County and nonprofit resources for mortgage relief, building estimates and overviews on the process.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2025

Eventually we aim to use this comparative data to produce intra-sectoral overviews.

From ERPANET Case Study: Project Gutenberg by ERPANET

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