Overpopulates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To exceed the ecological capacity of a place by having too many residents
2. To lead to a situation where the number of people in an area surpasses what the environment can sustain
3. To create a condition in which a location contains more individuals than it can support sustainably

Etymology: "Overpopulates" is the third-person singular present form of "overpopulate," so it simply carries the verb's meaning into a sentence about one subject at a time. The verb itself is a plain formation: "over-" attached to "populate," which comes from Latin "populare," "to people or lay waste," from "populus," "people." The prefix "over-" comes from Old English "ofer," meaning "above, beyond, too much," so the verb literally means to people something beyond what it can bear.

Synonyms: overcrowds, overfills

Antonyms: underpopulates, depopulates