overspecify.
To specify in excessive detail.
Meaning & usage
To specify in excessive detail.
The customer overspecified the requirements and now we're contractually required to build it this way. Does he think he's an engineer?
To specify excessive capability.
As usual the customer overspecified the requirements, it's like asking for a car that seats 20 and fits in a compact car's parking space.
To provide redundant or inconsistent information.
An overspecified truth table contains at least one decision that will never be executed because it is already specified in a previous decision...
A noun phrase is overspecified when it is used in a context where a pronoun would have been unambiguous.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Germanic *uber Old English ofer- Middle English over- English over- English specify English overspecify From over- + specify.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.