different between threatening vs overwhelming

English

Alternative forms

• threatning (obsolete)

Etymology

From threaten +? -ing.

Pronunciation

• enPR: thr?t??n??, IPA^(key): /????t.n?.??/
• Hyphenation: threat?en?ing

Verb

threatening

1. present participle of threaten

Adjective

threatening (comparative more threatening, superlative most threatening)

1. Presenting a threat; menacing; frightening.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

threatening (countable and uncountable, plural threatenings)

1. An act of threatening; a threat.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts IV:

     And nowe lorde beholde their threatenynges, and graunte unto thy servauntes wyth all confydence to speake thy worde.

   • 1859-1895, Charles Dickens, All the Year Round

     The butcher's boy — a fierce and beefy youth, who openly defied the dog, and waved him off with hurlings of his basket and threatenings of his feet, accompanied by growls of "Git out, yer beast!" — now entered silently […]

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?o?v??(h)w?lm??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???v??w?lm??/

Verb

overwhelming

1. present participle of overwhelm

Adjective

overwhelming (comparative more overwhelming, superlative most overwhelming)

1. Overpowering, staggering, or irresistibly strong.

   • The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades.

2. Very great or intense.
3. Extreme.

Antonyms

• underwhelming

Derived terms

• overwhelmingly
• overwhelmingness

Translations

Noun

overwhelming (plural overwhelmings)

1. A situation of being overwhelmed.
   • 2013, David Ford, Theology: A Very Short Introduction (page 9)

     They have centuries of premodern experience in coping with being overwhelmed in multiple ways—not only by God, but also by other overwhelmings that have always been part of the human condition, such as disease, famine, war […]