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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:

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

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026

In order to operate, the train will have to undergo 30 days of successful consecutive testing, receive an independent overview and an assessment by Los Angeles World Airports.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 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

The explanation goes a lot deeper than those AI overviews that now appear atop Google search results.

From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026

Posts reacting to TikTok's testing of AI overviews on its videos first began appearing in January.

From BBC ● May 8, 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

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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