Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell overall

Overall is spelled O-V-E-R-A-L-L. Over and all join with no space or hyphen, and all keeps its two L's.

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.

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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Words like this

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