superimpose
Americanverb (used with object)
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superimposes,
present (3rd person singular)
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superimposed,
past participle, past
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superimposing
present participle
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to impose, place, or set over, above, or on something else.
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to put or join as an addition (usually followed by on orupon ).
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to display or print (an image or text) over another image so that both are visible at once.
You can superimpose open captions on your videos with this free software.
verb
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to set or place on or over something else
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to add (to)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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superimposesimple
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superimposessimple
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have superimposedperfect
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has superimposedperfect
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am superimposingprogressive
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are superimposingprogressive
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is superimposingprogressive
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have been superimposingperfect progressive
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has been superimposingperfect progressive
Past
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superimposedsimple
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had superimposedperfect
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was superimposingprogressive
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were superimposingprogressive
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had been superimposingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of superimpose
Explanation
Superimpose means laying one thing on top of another. It's often used to describe images in a photo collage — like the superimposed image of a skyscraper on the surface of the moon. The verb superimpose is typically used in graphics or photography to describe how images can be put on top of one another for dramatic effect. Use it also to show adding your own take on something, or when you try to have an impact on someone's behavior: "She tried to superimpose her ideas of perfection onto the lazy habits of her children."
Vocabulary lists containing superimpose
Power Prefix: super-
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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.
See Examples For:
It is premature to entirely superimpose Tesla’s trading patterns on SpaceX, but that is exactly what many seasoned investors are referencing as the SpaceX options market develops.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
The agency “did not want to intervene and superimpose last-minute, unvetted judgment into the process, as this could have been perceived as manipulating the data,” it said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025
Users can then superimpose the digital images onto their physical surroundings using their device.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2025
She could be sweet, evil, overbearing, put-upon, thoughtful, impulsive, girlish, vulnerable or manipulative and superimpose selected qualities for extra complexity, always with a compressed energy, obvious or veiled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2024
At the right altitude, he could almost superimpose the luminous map on his visor over the actual Dublin streets below him.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
The most elucidating superimposes a Pietà by Anne-Louis Girodet, David’s little-known pupil, over David’s “Marat.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
A $25 coffee cup for sale on the site features his mugshot and his inmate number: P01135809, another superimposes his mugshot over a list of the criminal charges he now faces in four separate cases.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 25, 2023
When Peter Parker designs his superhero suit in the first “Spider-Man,” Raimi superimposes sketchbook drawings over images of Peter brainstorming, in an effect reminiscent of the cutouts and rear projection in his superhero noir “Darkman.”
From New York Times ● May 12, 2022
Online platforms have their own visual style — a filter that superimposes dog ears onto a person’s face wouldn’t be out of place — that doesn’t always translate to film to television.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 2, 2021
The mortal Don Quixote, in dying, realized his own comicness and bewept his sins; but the immortal Quixote, realizing his own comicness, superimposes himself upon it and triumphs over it without renouncing it.
From Tragic Sense Of Life by J. E. Crawford (John Ernest Crawford) Flitch
The team has seen so many certificates that it knows what to look for: fonts; inconsistent margins; the right official’s signature; a superimposed name of a student.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
"They are mirror images of each other, but you need a different glove for each. If you had two left-handed gloves, it wouldn't work because your hands can't be superimposed on top of one another."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 6, 2026
A flash of superimposed text identifies them as “*Very certified*, extremely serious ballet experts.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026
Jurors found him not guilty on the comparison to the 20th Century dictators and the Wests, but ruled the superimposed image was grossly offensive.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2025
But superimposed over the ruins was another layer of reality - a spectral mirage of the palace as it must have appeared in its heyday.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
"Others appear to be an image manipulated manually, often by superimposing indicators of damage or another change on a satellite image that had no such details to begin with," he said.
From Barron's ● Mar. 9, 2026
Hence, Shirley’s Central American vacation video generated many versions of a meme superimposing his image on stills from the show’s prison arc.
From Salon ● May 7, 2025
Murnau pioneered some early special effects, including superimposing the image of Nosferatu on to a ship to create a frightening ghostly glow, Eggers goes for an earthy take, grounded in history and reality.
From BBC ● Dec. 31, 2024
As such, elements capable of generating, propagating, superimposing, and measuring spin waves are being competitively developed worldwide.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 2024
Michael Angelo's Medici figures, and indeed, his other famous works, are not so unequivocably good; the effigies superimposing the sarcophagi are, for brief instance, "pillowy," though they may be more anatomic.
From Original Letters and Biographic Epitomes by J. Atwood Slater
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
