1. to determine or decide something with more factors, conditions, or constraints than are strictly necessary
Usage: formal; often used in philosophy, psychology, and social theory
2. to have multiple sufficient causes or explanations for a single effect or outcome
Usage: technical; used in causality and systems analysis

Examples

• The outcome was overdetermined by several independent factors working together.
• In psychoanalysis, a symptom may be overdetermined by multiple unconscious conflicts.
• The system's behavior is overdetermined because too many variables constrain the same result.
• Historians often find that historical events are overdetermined—multiple causes could have produced the same outcome.
• The researcher worried that the model was overdetermined, with redundant parameters explaining the same phenomenon.