Meanings
- UKalternativenot comparableAlternative form of overseas.
It was the biggest thing in the town, and everybody I met was full of it. They were going to run an over-sea empire, and make no end of coin by trade.
1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 199
- UKalternativenot comparableAlternative form of overseas.
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbbeyond or across the sea
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Englishofer sǣ
- Middle Englishover-se
- Englishoversea
From Middle English over-se, over see, ouer sea, from Old English ofer sǣ (literally “over/across (the) sea”); equivalent to over + sea. Compare West Frisian oerseesk, Dutch overzee, German Übersee, Danish oversøisk.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with oversea
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Cite this entry
oversea. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oversea
“oversea.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oversea. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “oversea,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oversea.
Source: oversea on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.