überlasteten

Überlasteten is a German word form related to the verb überlasten, meaning to overload or overburden. The base verb describes making something bear more load than it can safely handle, exceeding capacity, or placing an excessive demand on a system, object, or person. The form überlasteten occurs in two common grammatical contexts: as a simple past tense form for the third-person plural (sie überlasteten) and as a declined attributive adjective in plural nouns (die überlasteten Server).

Morphology and usage

- Simple past: überlasteten is the Präteritum (simple past) ending for third-person plural of überlasten, as in "Die Server überlasteten sich mit Anfragen; die Betreiber kämpften mit der Überlastung." In English: "The servers overloaded with requests."

- Attributive adjective (plural): after a definite article or other determiner, the adjective takes the ending -en: "die überlasteten Maschinen," meaning the overloaded machines. This form is used to describe multiple items that are currently overburdened.

Contexts

- Technology and infrastructure: describing overloaded servers, networks, or transportation systems during peak demand.

- Workloads and processes: referring to teams or processes that carry more work than they can handle, risking delays or errors.

- Safety and reliability: used in discussions about capacity planning, redundancy, and performance requirements to prevent overload.

Etymology and related terms

- The verb überlasten derives from über- (over) and lasten (load). Related nouns include Überlastung (overload) and Überlastungsrisiken (overload risks). The adjective form is commonly contrasted with überlastet (overloaded) in its base form.

See also: Überlastung, Lastkapazität, Kapazitätsplanung.