Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🚶‍♂️ Too many people 🦷 Crowded teeth
overcrowding

overcrowding

3.9
Not enough room in the mouth for all the teeth
  • noun
  • /ˌoʊvərˈkraʊdɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : apiñamiento dental
  • Many children experience dental overcrowding when they have too many teeth for their mouths, leading to misalignment.

Examples

  • Let me answer with an anecdote that, in the 1970s, enjoyed a certain cachet among students of crowding and overcrowding.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Dental overcrowding and retrognathia.

    Academic text (2011)

  • He calculated the gross overcrowding: one dormitory room with enough air space for ten persons was equipped with fifty-four bunks, all of which were sometimes used.

    Academic text (1997)

  • The dentist explained that overcrowding occurs when teeth grow too close together, making it difficult to clean between them.

  • He was concerned about the overcrowding of his teeth, which could lead to serious dental issues if left untreated.

Antonyms

spacing
11 2.7

Space between things like plants or letters

How Crowded

overcrowding
  • Specialized
3.9
crowding
9 2.1
even spacing
1 3.0

Surface Forms

overcrowding singular
overcrowdings plural

Morphology

overcrowding = overcrowd (transparent) = over + crowd + ing

The dental sense is a direct application of the same formation: 'over-' + 'crowd' -> 'overcrowd', with '-ing' forming the noun for the condition of being crowded.

Etymology

The word overcrowding comes from the parts over- 'too much' and crowd 'a group pressed close together', like people on a packed bus, and the same image works for teeth squeezed into a small mouth. So, overcrowding in dentistry means there is not enough space for all the teeth, so they push together and become crooked.