Surchargés

Surchargés is the masculine plural form of the French adjective surchargé, meaning overloaded or overburdened. It is used to describe things that carry more than their designed capacity, such as equipment, infrastructure, or people. The term appears in everyday language and in technical contexts to indicate excessive load or demand.

The word derives from surcharger, formed from sur- (over) and charger (to load). As an adjective, it agrees with the noun: un système surchargé, des systèmes surchargés; une personne surchargée, des personnes surchargées. The related noun for the overload itself is la surcharge.

Common usages include: transport and urban planning, where des routes ou des trains surchargés describe overloaded routes or trains; electricity and power systems, where un réseau surchargé indicates a network unable to cope with demand; computing and information systems, where des serveurs surchargés refer to overloaded servers; and the broader notion of information overload, expressed as une surcharge d'informations (information overload).

Notes on terminology: surchargés is an adjective and thus varies with gender and number, with forms such as surchargée (feminine singular), surchargés (masculine plural), and surchargées (feminine plural). The noun for the overload is la surcharge, with its plural surcharges. In usage, surchargé emphasizes the state of being over capacity, while surcharge typically denotes the actual excess or the act of loading beyond capacity.