overemphatic

adjective

over·​em·​phat·​ic ˌō-vər-im-ˈfa-tik 

-em-

: uttered with or marked by excessive or extreme emphasis : excessively or inappropriately emphatic

… his overly erect posture and overemphatic diction make him come off like an enraged headwaiter.

—Stuart Klawans

… the … posturing and overemphatic gesturing needed to reach the balcony in theater …

—Ron Rosenbaum

… in reaching for a strong conclusion, I was overemphatic.

—John Cassidy

overemphatically

ˌō-vər-im-ˈfa-ti-k(ə-)lē 

-em-

adverb

… all the while Babs has to sit there and take it, laughing overemphatically at every punchline to prove she's in on the joke.

—Teddy Jamieson

Examples of overemphatic in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Gavotte was hurried and sometimes overemphatic, the Gigue definitely in too much of a rush. —Dallas News, 23 May 2022

An occasional forte was a little overemphatic, and the finale would have danced at a less driven tempo. —Dallas News, 13 June 2022

Myers paints Berenger in overemphatic strokes, employing a too-fidgety physicality and expressions that verge on mugging. —Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2022

That leaves Shawn playing Rifkin with an overemphatic, one-note delivery. —Jesse Hassenger, The Week, 28 Jan. 2022

The movie sinks, fast and deep, under the weight of dramatic shortcuts, overemphatic details, undercooked possibilities, unconsidered implications. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 25 Jan. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1820, in the meaning defined above