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Showing results for overelaborate. Search instead for Cedrela+odorata.
Synonyms

overelaborate

American  
[oh-ver-i-lab-er-it, oh-ver-i-lab-uh-reyt] / ˈoʊ vər ɪˈlæb ər ɪt, ˌoʊ vər ɪˈlæb əˌreɪt /

adjective

  1. excessively or fussily elaborate, ornate, detailed, etc.

verb (used with object)

overelaborated, overelaborating

  1. to render or present with excessive or fussy detail.

    He so overelaborates his jokes that they lose their humor.

verb (used without object)

overelaborated, overelaborating

  1. to add excessive details, as in writing or speaking.

    He overelaborates to an extent that his novels must be cut radically before being published.
overelaborate British  

adjective

  1. excessively ornate, detailed, or complex

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to detail or develop (an idea, plan, etc) excessively

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • overelaborately adverb
  • overelaborateness noun
  • overelaboration noun

Etymology

Origin of overelaborate

over- + elaborate

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.

But it takes a series of self-reflexive turns that are overelaborate in their conception and slightly inert in their execution, rendering the movie’s poignancy more theoretical than fully felt.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

Are we still waiting around for Toni Morrison’s rather wordy and overelaborate sentences to let themselves be “more clearly interpreted?”

From Washington Post • Sep. 27, 2020

His style is sometimes called Latinate or overelaborate, but in truth he tried to make it a vocal, speaking, natural style.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 3, 2015

The state that has taken coconut cake to its overelaborate zenith is the state that gets coconut cake as its official state dessert.

From Slate • Aug. 24, 2014

It was made of granite for strength and massiveness, but like so many other things in Iofur’s palace, it was decorated with overelaborate swags and festoons of gilt that looked like tinsel on a mountainside.

From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman

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.