overcast

UK/ˈəʊvəˌkɑːst/US/ˈoʊvɚ.kæst/

adjectiveB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,783 of 15,258neutral

Overcast means completely covered by grey cloud. An overcast sky, overcast all day, overcast and cool.

In forecasting it is a precise term: more than about seven eighths of the sky covered, which is measured in eighths called oktas. Photographers like an overcast day because the cloud works as one enormous soft light with no hard shadows.

Definitions of overcast

1adjectiveovercastCompletely covered by grey cloud.B1+
“It was a cold, overcast day, and the sun never came out.”

overcast is a weather condition.

Where it comes from

Middle English overcasten, over plus cast — the sky is cast over, as a cloth is thrown across.

Middle English
overcasten
English, today
overcast

From Middle English overcasten, equivalent to over + cast. Compare Swedish överkast.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Weather & Seasons

Practise this word

overcast in the wild

Under an overcast sky, there is no direct sunlight, and all light results from diffused skylight radiation.
Diffuse sky radiation
The primary patterns used are curved band pattern, shear pattern, central dense overcast (CDO) pattern, central cold cover (CCC) pattern, banding eye pattern, and eye pattern.
Dvorak technique
Both the central dense overcast and embedded eye pattern use the size of the CDO.
Dvorak technique
Overcast or overcast weather, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization, is the meteorological condition of clouds obscuring at least 95% of the sky.
Overcast

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.

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