Skip to content

abrumar

to overwhelm

verb ah-broo-MAHR Rare

Also means

to weigh down

Usage Note

Abrumar implies being crushed or smothered by a weight — physical, emotional, or figurative — and is stronger than agobiar. It commonly appears in the reflexive or past-participle form: estoy abrumado por el trabajo ('I'm overwhelmed by work'). Unlike English 'overwhelm,' it leans slightly more toward oppressive heaviness than sheer volume.

Examples

"El trabajo me abruma cada día."

Natural Translation

Work overwhelms me every day.

Literal Translation

Work to-me overwhelms every day.

Free starter pack

Building your Spanish vocabulary?

Get the 100 most common Spanish words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.

Explore Spanish by topic