overcome

Bridgezipf 4.27

Pronunciation

/ˌəʊvəˈkʌm/(oh-vuh-KUM)

Part of speech

verbneutral/positive

Chinese

克服；战胜（成功应对困难、障碍或负面情绪）

Definition

To successfully deal with a problem or difficulty; to gain the upper hand over; to overwhelm emotionally.

Word family

  • —(no standard derivatives beyond conjugations)

Collocations

  • overcome a challenge
  • overcome obstacles
  • overcome resistance
  • overcome fears
  • overcome adversity
  • hard to overcome

Examples

  1. 1.She overcame significant personal setbacks to become one of the leading researchers in her field.
  2. 2.The biggest obstacle to overcome is not technical — it is getting people to change how they work.

Synonyms

  • conquer/ˈkɒŋkə/— overcome completely
  • surmount/səˈmaʊnt/— manage to deal with — formal
  • prevail over (succeed in spite of)

Etymology

from Old English "ofercuman" = to come over, to prevail