Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell overall

hear ito·ver·all/'oʊvərɔl/adverbRules and real life

What it means: Taken as a whole; in general.

In a sentence: Overall, the picnic was lots of fun for everyone.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double l. Often misspelled as over all or over-all.

Same family: overalls, overall (adverb: "Overall, the results were good."), overall (adjective: "the overall cost"), coverall. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: The clothing noun 'overall' comes from the phrase 'over all', meaning a garment worn over all your other clothes. Over time, the two words were joined into one as it became a common, specific type of work clothing.

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