# overflow

/ˈoʊvɝˌfɫoʊ/ (US)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/overflow
Updated: 2026-08-08

## Senses

### 2. to be very full of a feeling

verb · CEFR B2 · Literary

to have a very strong feeling that you cannot hide.

For teachers: to be filled with a particular emotion or quality to the point of it being visible or overwhelming.

- Her heart overflowed with joy when she saw her family at the airport.
- The speaker's voice overflowed with emotion as he recounted the sacrifices made by the community during the crisis.

### 3. to exceed storage limit

verb · CEFR C1 · Technical

to try to store a number that is too big for a computer's memory.

For teachers: to exceed the maximum capacity of a numeric register or storage buffer. Often used in the context of programming errors.

- The program crashed because the calculation caused the variable to overflow.
- The legacy system failed to handle the high-precision data, causing the integer to overflow and return a negative value.

### 4. extra amount or people

noun · CEFR B2

an extra amount of something that does not fit in the usual space.

For teachers: the amount or number of people that exceeds the capacity of a particular space or system.

- The hotel was full, so they put the overflow of guests in a nearby building.
- To manage the overflow of applicants, the university opened a secondary campus for the introductory lectures.

### 5. a safety pipe

noun · CEFR B2 · Technical

a pipe that lets extra liquid escape so a tank does not flood.

For teachers: an outlet or pipe provided to allow the escape of excess liquid to prevent flooding.

- Water started dripping from the overflow pipe because the tank was too full.
- The plumber checked the overflow to ensure that any blockage in the main line wouldn't result in internal water damage.

## Examples

- The sink caused an overflow because the drain was blocked.
- The stadium had to open an overflow area to accommodate the thousands of fans who arrived without tickets.
- Legacy systems are particularly vulnerable to integer overflow errors, which can cause the software to reset to its minimum value or crash entirely when a specific numerical limit is reached.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.