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I hear or read both phrases regularly, and they seem to have the same meaning to me. But do they have different meanings? Or is “overly confident” even grammatically correct?

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You keep using the word "gramatically" in your questions. It hurts. – RegDwighт♦ Apr 5 '12 at 13:19
so what do you suppose I should use? I wanted to ask if the grammar was correct. – Mel Apr 5 '12 at 14:37
Mel, try to spell the word correctly. – jwpat7 Apr 5 '12 at 16:27
oh sorry my bad. – Mel Apr 6 '12 at 13:08

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Confident is an adjective and overly is an adverb. Adjectives are usually modified by adverbs. This is a perfectly normal and grammatical construction.

The other word is usually written as one word: overconfident.

The meanings are the same.

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