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Glite Dictionary
⚖️ To outweigh 🤸 To lose balance 🔄 To upset balance
to overbalance

to overbalance

1 6.7
To be more important than something else
  • verb
  • /ˌoʊvərˈbæləns/
translation icon : sobresalir
  • In this debate, the expert's opinion tends to overbalance others due to their extensive experience.

Examples

  • His bladder nearly gave way, and for a moment the pleasure of doing so almost overbalanced the terrible shame.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I was very cautiously optimistic about this from the start, and felt that all those reasons you cited were valid, but were very marginally overbalanced by "yes, but then Gaddafi won't be shooting people in the head anymore if this works, and it's mostly the Libyans themselves that want to do this, so if we can do it more or less like they're claiming... well... go ahead, I'll cross my fingers."

    Blog text (11)

  • The benefits of the new policy will likely overbalance any potential drawbacks.

  • The urgent need for reform should overbalance concerns about the costs involved.

Synonyms

to outweigh
vsto overbalance
75 4.2

To be more important or valuable than something else

is the general idea of being more significant or having greater effect
to outbalance
vsto overbalance
1 7.1

To be more important than something else

is used for the same surpassing of importance or effect
to preponderate
vsto overbalance
  • Formal
9.4

To be greater or more important than something else

focuses on general greater importance or effect rather than number or force

How Important

to dominate
275 3.7
to overbalance
1 6.7
to outweigh
75 4.2
to matter
∞ 1.4

Surface Forms

overbalance infinitive
overbalanced past
overbalanced past participle
overbalancing present participle
overbalances third person singular

Morphology

overbalance = balance (transparent) = over + balance

Meaning 'to outweigh or exceed in importance' follows directly from 'over-' (exceed) + 'balance' (weight/importance), so learners can infer it.

Etymology

The word overbalance comes from over- meaning 'too much' or 'above' and balance meaning 'even weight'. So, it is like putting too much weight on one side, which is why it can mean 'to outweigh' or be more important than something else.