overcrowded

adjective

over·​crowd·​ed ˌō-vər-ˈkrau̇-dəd 

: crowded or filled to excess : having too many people or things

overcrowded streets/cities/classrooms

living in overcrowded conditions

… having an overcrowded space can make it hard for buyers to … visualize their own belongings in the space, said Los Angeles-based designer Francesca Grace.

—Jennifer Tzeses

… some 5 million workers commute for up to three hours on trains so overcrowded that there seem to be as many passengers hanging on to the outside of the carriages as there are inside.

—Ismail Merchant

Examples of overcrowded in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Even with three furry friends at home — a keeshond named Maurice and two cats, Napoleon and Charlemagne — the apartment was cozy but not overcrowded. —Debra Kamin, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2025

My parents, both educators, witnessed firsthand the crumbling state of local public school education: overcrowded classrooms, underfunded programs, and a growing sense of despair among students and teachers. —Dria James, refinery29.com, 12 Feb. 2025

Immigrants and Black workers, most of them migrants from the Deep South, were pushed into overcrowded neighborhoods with houses made of tarpaper and wood. —Paige Williams, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025

Psychologist Barry Markell compared aggressive drivers to overcrowded rats, saying that when too many people occupy the same space, hostility rises. —Kristan Hawkins, Newsweek, 7 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

from past participle of overcrowd

First Known Use

1725, in the meaning defined above