aerial vs overhead

aerial

adj
  • Above the ground 

  • Living or taking place in the air. 

  • Pertaining to the air or atmosphere; atmospheric. 

  • Made up of air or gas; gaseous. 

  • Positioned high up; elevated. 

  • Ethereal, insubstantial; imaginary. 

  • Pertaining to a vehicle which travels through the air; airborne; relating to or conducted by means of aircraft. 

noun
  • A rod, wire, or other structure for receiving or transmitting radio, television signals etc. 

  • A move, as in dancing or skateboarding, involving one or both feet leaving the ground. 

  • An aerial photograph. 

overhead

adj
  • located above, especially over the head 

  • kicked over one's own head 

noun
  • Data or steps of computation used only to facilitate the computations in the system and not directly related to the actual program code or data being processed. 

  • Any cost or expenditure (monetary, time, effort or otherwise) incurred in a project or activity, which does not directly contribute to its progress or outcome. 

  • Wasted money. 

  • An overhead projector. 

  • A sheet of transparent material with an image used with an overhead projector; an overhead transparency. 

  • The expense of a business not directly assigned to goods or services provided. 

  • The items or classes of expense not directly assigned to goods or services provided. 

  • The ceiling of any enclosed space below decks in a vessel. 

  • The system of overhead wires used to power electric transport, such as streetcars, trains, or buses. 

  • A compartment above the seats for stowing luggage in a passenger aircraft. 

  • An overhead throw. 

  • A smash. 

adv
  • Above one's head; in the sky. 

How often have the words aerial and overhead occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )