Meanings
plural overachievers · alternative over-achiever
- One who overachieves; one who has too much success.First known use 1950s
But none of those is true for Mr. de Rothschild, who belongs instead to a multihyphened class of overachievers: eco-adventurer and green-evangelist.
2009 April 19, Jesse Mckinley, “After the Silver Spoon, a Green Life”, in The New York Times2 more examples
It is the portrait of one of the great teacher-parents, a zealot of European high culture self-confidently at work before the time that turned such a parent into a selfish tyrant and such a child into an "overachiever," to use the philistine label which conveys the contemporary disdain for precocity and intellectual ardor.
1980, Susan Sontag, “Mind as Passion”, in Under the Sign of Saturn, New York: Vintage, published 1981, pages 192–3The hyperfit athlete and the frail elderly woman are alike in that they are made in God's image. The lost rebellious teenager, the college overachiever, and the self-conscious middle schooler are all image bearers.
2021, Paul David Tripp, Do You Believe?, Crossway, →ISBNAntonyms: underachiever
Synonyms & antonyms
nounOne who overachieves; one who has too much success.
Origin
From overachieve + -er or over- + achiever.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 捲王 /卷王
- 捲王 /卷王 (juǎnwáng)one who overachieves
Dutch uitschieter
- uitschieterone who overachieves
Finnish ylisuorittaja
- ylisuorittajaone who overachieves
German Überleister, Überleisterin
- Überleisterone who overachieves
- Überleisterinone who overachieves
Spanish sobrelogrador
- sobrelogradorone who overachieves
Cite this entry
overachiever. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overachiever
“overachiever.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overachiever. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “overachiever,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overachiever.
Source: overachiever on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.