DictionaryAI

overview

USOH-ver-vyoo/ˈoʊ.vɚˌvjuː/UKOH-vuh-vyoo/ˈəʊ.vəˌvjuː/

Pluraloverviews

Verboverviews, overviewing, overviewed

4 meanings of overview

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountable
    A brief summary of the main points of something, such as a book or a presentation.

    The first chapter gives an overview of the war before the author turns to individual battles.

    The manager opened the meeting with a quick overview of last quarter's sales.

    Similarsummary, outline, survey, synopsis, rundown

    Note

    The word is over- plus view: a summary takes in its subject the way a high vantage point takes in a landscape, all at once and without the detail. An overview is usually given or provided, with of naming the subject, as when Paul Bigland offered in Rail in 2020 "an overview of what's happening where" alongside a recap of recent announcements.

  2. 2
    verbtransitive
    To give a brief summary of something.

    This report will overview the main findings before turning to the details.

    In her opening chapter she overviewed recent research on sleep and memory.

    Similarsummarize, outline, survey, review

  3. 3
    nounrarecountable
    A view of something seen from above.

    From the top of the bell tower we had a sweeping overview of the old town's rooftops.

    The pilot circled low to get a clear overview of the flooded farmland.

    Similarview, panorama, vista

    Note

    The literal picture behind the summary is rare on its own. Most readers will take overview to mean a summary, so for the sight from a tower or a plane, view or bird's-eye view is the safer choice, and overview in this sense reads as a deliberate return to the word's parts.

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    nounobsolete
    The act of inspecting someone or something.

    The colonel arrived at dawn for his overview of the troops, walking slowly down every line.

    Are we betray’d thus to thy over-view?
    c. 1595, William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”
    Note

    Shakespeare's over-view meant inspection, a looking-over rather than a summing-up: "Are we betray'd thus to thy over-view?" asks a speaker caught out in Love's Labour's Lost. The sense is obsolete, so in older texts read the word as scrutiny, not as a summary.

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Origin

Formed from the prefix over- + view.