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overtalk

overtalk

7.5
Speech that happens at the same time as someone else and makes the conversation hard to follow
  • noun
  • /oʊvərˈtɔk/
translation icon : interrupción
  • During the meeting, the overtalk among the team members made it hard to follow the discussion.

Examples

  • The overtalk in the crowded café made it difficult to hear the person sitting right across from me.

  • Exclusion criteria for extraction were cases where the /s/ could not be segmented with confidence because of background noise, overtalk, or continuous acoustic changes related to surrounding sounds.

    Academic text (2013)
  • Her constant overtalk created a chaotic atmosphere where no one could express their opinions.

How Interruptive

overtalk
7.5
speaking
4 1.0

Surface Forms

overtalk singular
overtalks plural

Morphology

overtalk = talk (transparent) = over + talk

The meaning is directly built from over- plus talk, referring to speech that goes over or interrupts other speakers.

Etymology

The word overtalk comes from over- meaning 'on top of' and talk. Think of speech that sits 'on top of' other people's words, so an overtalk makes a conversation hard to follow.