overwhelming
part of speech
adjective (overwhelming); also the -ing form of the verb overwhelm (overwhelm, overwhelms, overwhelmed, overwhelming)
meaning for a pupil
1) Very great or strong, so that it is hard to deal with: "an overwhelming feeling of sadness". tree →
2) Much bigger than the other side: "an overwhelming majority". tree →
3) verb form: Being too much for someone, so they cannot cope. tree →
sense in the lessons
In wellbeing lessons, feelings or schoolwork can be overwhelming; the advice is to break tasks into small steps and talk to someone. In elections and votes, an overwhelming majority or win means by a very large amount. In stories, an army or wave may be overwhelming. Phrases: overwhelming majority, overwhelming evidence, feel overwhelmed.
examples
- The noise in the hall was overwhelming. tree →
- The class voted by an overwhelming majority for a pet hamster. tree →
- When homework feels overwhelming, start with one small task. tree →
- There was overwhelming evidence that the dog ate the cake. tree →
- The kindness of our neighbours was overwhelming. tree →
- The flood was overwhelming the town's defences. tree →
- She felt overwhelmed on her first day at the new school. tree →
- Cycnus, the faithful friend of the unhappy Phaethon, felt such overwhelming grief at his terrible fate, that he pined and wasted away. tree →
note
Spelling: overwhelming has "wh" and one m. "Overwhelmed" describes how a person feels; "overwhelming" describes the thing that causes it. In maths and voting, an overwhelming majority is far more than half, for example 27 votes out of 30.
In the corpora
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «overwhelming» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.