overachiever

[ oh-ver-uh-chee-ver ]

noun

1. a person who performs better or achieves more than people are generally expected to, often because of high ambition, pressure from family, etc.:

   Ever the overachiever, he reached his sales goal for the year a whopping five months early.

2. a person who performs, especially academically, above the potential indicated by tests of their mental ability or aptitude:

   We found many overachievers with modest SAT scores who nevertheless achieved high GPAs across a variety of majors.

Word History and Origins

Origin of overachiever¹

First recorded in 1935–40; over- ( def ) + achieve ( def ) + -er ¹( def )

Example Sentences

Mr. Cherry is best known for his role as the snarky overachiever Dylan in the dystopian Apple TV+ workplace thriller series “Severance.”

From New York Times

An overachiever with a resume to dwarf her husband’s, she can’t understand why she’s not president — or rather, she has grown tired of accepting the sexist reason.

From Los Angeles Times

It’s a difficult admission for Mike Hopkins considering at heart the 54-year-old Washington men’s basketball coach is still the scrappy, dive-on-the-floor overachiever who former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim once described as: “someone who would have more floor burns than points.”

From Seattle Times

An overachiever in educational environments that were underfunded, she graduated at the top of her class only to discover that she was ill equipped to compete with her more privileged peers in the elite university sweepstakes.

From Los Angeles Times

Sonny Gray, 34, RHP, 5.3, 30: Gray, a 5-foot-10 overachiever with Vanderbilt roots, bounced back from several injury-plagued seasons to post a 2.79 ERA while giving up only eight home runs over 184 innings with the Minnesota Twins.

From Los Angeles Times