crowded

UK/ˈkɹaʊdɪd/US/ˈkɹaʊdɪd/

adjectiveA2+3 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,632 of 15,258neutral

Crowded means there are more people in the space than it comfortably holds. A rush-hour train where nobody can reach a handrail, a beach in August, a bar where you shout to be heard.

Things crowd as well as people: a crowded shelf, a crowded diary, a crowded market where twelve firms sell the same thing. It is the past participle of crowd doing adjective work, which is why you also meet crowded out — pushed aside by everything else competing for room. Overcrowded is the stronger word and it carries a complaint: overcrowded prisons, overcrowded classrooms. An empty room is the opposite, and a deserted street is the vivid version of empty.

Definitions of crowded

1adjectivecrowdedFull of people, with little room to move.A2+
“The platform was so crowded that we let two trains go.”
synonyms: packed, jammed
2adjectiveholdingHolding too many things in too little space or time.B2
“My week is crowded with meetings I did not ask for.”
3adjectivemarketOf a market or field: full of rivals doing the same thing.B2
“It is a crowded market and nothing stands out.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

Also accepted in games: packed

Practised in Everyday Adjectives, Sharper Adjectives

Practise this word

crowded in the wild

The small beaches, located right outside the former prison, are usually crowded in summer.
Långholmen
A passenger pusher is a worker who pushes people onto the mass transportation vehicle at a crowded stop during the rush hours.
Passenger pusher
By 1953 the museum had grown crowded and a new location was pursued.
Firelands Museum
Many others lived in the camp for years which came to resemble a crowded and large Hmong village.
Ban Vinai Refugee Camp
Every Thursday night, a fixed population want to go have fun at the El Farol Bar, unless it's too crowded.
El Farol Bar problem

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

overcrowded

Definitions of crowded

1adjectivecrowdedFull of people, with little room to move.A2+

“The platform was so crowded that we let two trains go.”

synonyms: packed, jammed

2adjectiveholdingHolding too many things in too little space or time.B2

“My week is crowded with meetings I did not ask for.”

3adjectivemarketOf a market or field: full of rivals doing the same thing.B2

“It is a crowded market and nothing stands out.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

Also accepted in games: packed