{
  "id": "overthink.cognitive",
  "term": "overthink",
  "sense": "cognitive",
  "pos": "verb",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 17,
  "domain": "cognitive",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "To think about a thing so much that it changes in time and does not stop.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "think.cognitive",
      "persist.continue",
      "time.dimension"
    ],
    "interaction": "When thinking continues through time beyond what is usual, the process persists and alters the pattern of thought.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "excessive mental activity",
      "altered perception of time"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "think.cognitive",
      "note": "intensified form",
      "type": "contrasts-with"
    },
    {
      "id": "exhaustion.capacity",
      "note": "can lead to",
      "type": "enables"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "overthink",
    "overthinking",
    "overthinks",
    "overthought"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-overthink.cognitive"
}