overqualify

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verb

To give excessive academic qualifications to.

Scrabble 29
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Meanings

verboverqualify (third-person singular simple present overqualifies, present participle overqualifying, simple past and past participle overqualified)

present singular third person overqualifies · participle present overqualifying · participle past overqualified · past overqualified

  1. transitiveTo give excessive academic qualifications to.

    […] remember it is better to overqualify advisers than to make assumptions about their abilities.

    2001, Charles A. Jaffe, The Right Way to Hire Financial Help, 2nd edition, page 270
  2. transitiveTo modify, restrict or moderate (a statement, etc.) excessively.

    I do have a tendency sometimes to overqualify what I am saying or labour the point.

    2003, Linda Papadopoulos, Malcolm Cross, Robert Bor, Reporting in Counselling and Psychotherapy, page 59

Origin

From over- + qualify.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

overqualify. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overqualify

MLA

“overqualify.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overqualify. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “overqualify,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overqualify.

Source: overqualify on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.