Barely and Overly

Barely

Barely adverb - By a very small margin.

Overly is an antonym for barely.

Nearby Words: bare, bareness

Overly

Overly adverb - Beyond a normal or acceptable limit.
Usage example: there's no need to be overly careful about the rough draft, since we'll polish it afterwards

Barely is an antonym for overly.

Both words in one sentence

  • Website / Facebook Overly Long Gag: Constantly receiving notifications from a thread you barely participated in can become this, but luckily this has been fixed.
  • Overly Long Gag He tries it again in a later episode that season, but barely begins before Brian punches him silent, thus rendering it a case of Overly Long Rule of Three.
  • Special Guest Castle is fairly nonchalant, having met Joe before and not being overly interested in the game anyway, but Beckett can barely keep from Squeeing and immediately rushes off to call her dad to gloat.
    Source: Special Guest
Cite this Source
Overly and Barely. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 16, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/barely/overly
Barely & Overly. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/barely/overly>.
Overly or Barely. 2016. Accessed August 16, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/barely/overly.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "barely" and "overly" have occurred on timeline