Overcome vs. Beat: Difference and Comparison
Edited by Muazma Batool — By Muneeza Rehman — Updated on September 8, 2023
Overcome means to succeed in dealing with a problem or difficulty, while beat refers to defeat or surpass someone or something.
Difference Between Overcome and Beat
In the vast vocabulary of the English language, overcome and beat hold places of importance, especially when discussing challenges and victories. The word overcome implies a struggle or challenge that has been surmounted. It's a word deeply linked with personal battles and challenges. For instance, if someone struggles with a fear and eventually faces it head-on, they have overcome that fear.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
On the other hand, beat possesses a more aggressive tone. It suggests that an opponent, whether tangible like a rival sports team, or intangible like time, has been defeated. For example, if one sports team scores more points than another, they have beat the other team.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
The subtlety between overcome and beat also lies in their connotations. Overcome often carries a more emotional, internal connotation. It emphasizes the journey and the process. On the contrary, beat is more external, focusing on the result rather than the journey. It's about emerging victorious over an adversary.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Another layer of distinction is the contexts in which they're most appropriately used. Overcome fits best when discussing personal battles or challenges, be they emotional, psychological, or physical. On the flip side, beat often finds its place in competitive scenarios or where there's a clear winner.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
In essence, while both overcome and beat suggest a form of victory, the former emphasizes the process and personal growth, whereas the latter emphasizes the result and the act of winning against another.
Jonathan
Sep 08, 2023
Overcome vs. Beat Comparison Chart
Connotation
Emotionally charged, internal struggle
Competitive, external victory
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Typical Usage
Personal battles or challenges
Clear competitions or adversaries
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Sep 08, 2023
Overcome vs. Beat Definitions
◉Overcome
To overpower or overwhelm in body or mind.
They overcame the invaders after a fierce battle.
Nolan
Sep 08, 2023
◉Overcome
To succeed in dealing with a problem or difficulty.
After years of therapy, he overcame his traumatic experiences.
Henry
Sep 08, 2023
◉Overcome
To defeat (another) in competition or conflict
overcame the opposing team in the last quarter.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Overcome
To deal with successfully; prevail over; surmount
tried to overcome the obstacles of poverty.
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May 03, 2023
◉Overcome
To overpower, as with emotion; affect deeply
was overcome with grief.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To strike against repeatedly and with force; pound
waves beating the shore.
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May 03, 2023
◉Overcome
(transitive) To surmount (a physical or abstract obstacle); to prevail over, to get the better of.
to overcome enemies in battle
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(Music) To mark or count (time or rhythm), especially with the hands or with a baton.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To shape or break by repeated blows; forge
beat the glowing metal into a dagger.
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May 03, 2023
◉Overcome
(transitive) To win or prevail in some sort of battle, contest, etc.
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May 03, 2023
◉Overcome
To get the better of; to surmount; to conquer; to subdue; as, to overcome enemies in battle.
This wretched woman overcomeOf anguish, rather than of crime, hath been.
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May 03, 2023
◉Overcome
To come or pass over; to spread over.
And overcome us like a summer's cloud.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent
beat the traffic.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To arrive or finish before (another)
We beat you home by five minutes.
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May 03, 2023
◉Overcome
win a victory over;
You must overcome all difficulties
defeat your enemies
He overcame his shyness
She conquered here fear of mice
He overcame his infirmity
Her anger got the better of her and she blew up
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To deprive, as by craft or ability
He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(Physics) To cause a reference wave to combine with (a second wave) so that the frequency of the second wave can be studied through time variations in the amplitude of the combination.
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May 03, 2023
◉Overcome
overcome, usually through no fault or weakness of the person that is overcome;
Heart disease can get the best of us
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May 03, 2023
◉Overcome
rendered powerless especially by an excessive amount or profusion of something;
a desk flooded with applications
felt inundated with work
too much overcome to notice
a man engulfed by fear
swamped by work
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May 03, 2023
◉Overcome
To prevail despite adversity.
She overcame numerous challenges to achieve her goals.
Jonathan
Sep 08, 2023
◉Overcome
To conquer a fear or reluctance.
He overcame his fear of heights by skydiving.
Jonathan
Sep 08, 2023
◉Overcome
To gain the superiority or advantage.
With determination, she overcame all her competitors.
Olivia
Sep 08, 2023
◉Beat
A stroke or blow, especially one that produces a sound or serves as a signal.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(Physics) A variation in the amplitude of a wave, especially that which results from the superpositioning of two or more waves of different frequencies. When sound waves are combined, the beat is heard as a pulsation in the sound.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
A variable unit of time measuring a pause taken by an actor, as for dramatic effect.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
The area regularly covered by a reporter, a police officer, or a sentry
television's culture beat.
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◉Beat
(music) A pulse on the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit. Thus a beat is the basic time unit of a piece.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
A rhythm.
I love watching her dance to a pretty drum beat with a bouncy rhythm!
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(music) The rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(authorship) A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(journalism) The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(dated) An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(AU) An area frequented by gay men in search of sexual activity. See gay beat.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
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◉Beat
(transitive) To hit; to strike.
As soon as she heard that her father had died, she went into a rage and beat the wall with her fists until her knuckles bled.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(transitive) To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(intransitive) To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(transitive) To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.
Jan had little trouble beating John in tennis. He lost five games in a row.
No matter how quickly Joe finished his test, Roger always beat him.
I just can't seem to beat the last level of this video game.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(transitive) To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.
Beat the eggs and whip the cream.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To persuade the seller to reduce a price.
He wanted $50 for it, but I managed to beat him down to $35.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(transitive) To indicate by beating or drumming.
to beat a retreat; to beat to quarters
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To make a succession of strokes on a drum.
The drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and lesser intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; said of instruments, tones, or vibrations not perfectly in unison.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
(transitive) To arrive at a place before someone.
He beat me there.
The place is empty, we beat the crowd of people who come at lunch.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To have sexual intercourse.
Bruv, she came in just as we started to beat.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
Dilapidated, beat up.
Dude, you drive a beat car like that and you ain’t gonna get no honeys.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
Having impressively attractive makeup.
Her face was beat for the gods!
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To strike repeatedly; to lay repeated blows upon; as, to beat one's breast; to beat iron so as to shape it; to beat grain, in order to force out the seeds; to beat eggs and sugar; to beat a drum.
Thou shalt beat some of it [spices] very small.
They did beat the gold into thin plates.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of rousing game.
To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.
A frozen continent . . . beat with perpetual storms.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game, etc.; to vanquish, defeat, or conquer; to surpass or be superior to.
He beat them in a bloody battle.
For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
Why should any one . . . beat his head about the Latin grammar who does not intend to be a critic?
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To give the signal for, by beat of drum; to sound by beat of drum; as, to beat an alarm, a charge, a parley, a retreat; to beat the general, the reveille, the tattoo. See Alarm, Charge, Parley, etc.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
to baffle or stump; to defy the comprehension of (a person); as, it beats me why he would do that.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
to evade, avoid, or escape (blame, taxes, punishment); as, to beat the rap (be acquitted); to beat the sales tax by buying out of state.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
The men of the city . . . beat at the door.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force; to strike anything, as rain, wind, and waves do.
Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below.
They [winds] beat at the crazy casement.
The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.
Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and less intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; - said of instruments, tones, or vibrations, not perfectly in unison.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
A stroke; a blow.
He, with a careless beat,Struck out the mute creation at a heat.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
A recurring stroke; a throb; a pulsation; as, a beat of the heart; the beat of the pulse.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
The rise or fall of the hand or foot, marking the divisions of time; a division of the measure so marked. In the rhythm of music the beat is the unit.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
A round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a watchman's beat; analogously, for newspaper reporters, the subject or territory that they are assigned to cover; as, the Washington beat.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
A cheat or swindler of the lowest grade; - often emphasized by dead; as, a dead beat; also, deadbeat.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
One that beats, or surpasses, another or others; as, the beat of him.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
The act of one that beats a person or thing
It's a beat on the whole country.
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the last moment, when the beat is close to them.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Beat
Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted.
Quite beat, and very much vexed and disappointed.
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Beat
a regular route for a sentry or policeman;
in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart;
he could feel the beat of her heart
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music;
the piece has a fast rhythm
the conductor set the beat
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
a single pulsation of an oscillation produced by adding two waves of different frequencies; has a frequency equal to the difference between the two oscillations
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
come out better in a competition, race, or conflict;
Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship
We beat the competition
Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression;
Thugs beat him up when he walked down the street late at night
The teacher used to beat the students
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Beat
make a rhythmic sound;
Rain drummed against the windshield
The drums beat all night
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
move with a thrashing motion;
The bird flapped its wings
The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
sail with much tacking or with difficulty;
The boat beat in the strong wind
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music;
beat one's breast
beat one's foot rhythmically
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
make a sound like a clock or a timer;
the clocks were ticking
the grandfather clock beat midnight
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks;
Beat the rhythm
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
move with or as if with a regular alternating motion;
the city pulsated with music and excitement
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
beat through cleverness and wit;
I beat the traffic
She outfoxed her competitors
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
be a mystery or bewildering to;
This beats me!
Got me--I don't know the answer!
a vexing problem
This question really stuck me
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
wear out completely;
This kind of work exhausts me
I'm beat
He was all washed up after the exam
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May 03, 2023
◉Beat
very tired;
was all in at the end of the day
so beat I could flop down and go to sleep anywhere
bushed after all that exercise
I'm dead after that long trip
Muneeza Rehman
May 03, 2023
◉Beat
To defeat or surpass in a competition.
Our team beat the opponents 3-0.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
◉Beat
To sail upwind, tacking frequently.
The sailor had to beat against the current.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Overcome vs. Beat Frequently Asked Questions
What does overcome usually suggest?
Prevailing in a personal struggle or challenge.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Can beat refer to a repetitive action?
Yes, beat can mean to strike something repeatedly.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Would you use overcome when talking about defeating another team in a game?
No, in that context, "beat" would be more appropriate.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Does beat always suggest an external adversary?
Often, but not always; beat can also refer to non-competitive actions like beating eggs.
Olivia
Sep 08, 2023
Is overcome related to personal growth?
Yes, overcome often emphasizes personal growth and evolution.
Nolan
Sep 08, 2023
Is overcome more about the journey or the result?
Overcome is more about the journey and personal growth.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
How is beat different from overcome?
Beat often implies defeating an opponent or adversary.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Which word has a more emotional connotation?
Overcome has a more emotional and internal connotation.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Can overcome be used in a competitive scenario?
While it can be, beat is more commonly used in clear competitive scenarios.
Nolan
Sep 08, 2023
Can beat be used in the context of heart rhythms?
Yes, one's heart is said to "beat" when referring to its rhythmic pulsations.
Muneeza Rehman
Sep 08, 2023
Content Creators
Written by
Muneeza RehmanAt Comparisons.wiki, Muneeza skillfully navigates the vast sea of information, ensuring clarity and accuracy as the lead content editor. With a keen eye for detail, she curates every comparison to enlighten and engage readers.
Edited by
Muazma BatoolAs a content editor, Muazma Batool is not just a grammar guru but a creative mastermind who breathes life into every word. With an eagle eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, she transforms bland text into engaging content that captivates audiences and drives results.
