diff --git a/clang/docs/ReleaseNotes.rst b/clang/docs/ReleaseNotes.rst
--- a/clang/docs/ReleaseNotes.rst
+++ b/clang/docs/ReleaseNotes.rst
@@ -77,6 +77,9 @@
 
 - Added support for parameter pack expansion in `clang::annotate`.
 
+- The ``overloadable`` attribute can now be written in all of the syntactic
+  locations a declaration attribute may appear. Fixes PR53805.
+
 Windows Support
 ---------------
 
diff --git a/clang/lib/Sema/SemaType.cpp b/clang/lib/Sema/SemaType.cpp
--- a/clang/lib/Sema/SemaType.cpp
+++ b/clang/lib/Sema/SemaType.cpp
@@ -5237,7 +5237,9 @@
         // function is marked with the "overloadable" attribute. Scan
         // for this attribute now.
         if (!FTI.NumParams && FTI.isVariadic && !LangOpts.CPlusPlus)
-          if (!D.getAttributes().hasAttribute(ParsedAttr::AT_Overloadable))
+          if (!D.getAttributes().hasAttribute(ParsedAttr::AT_Overloadable) &&
+              !D.getDeclSpec().getAttributes().hasAttribute(
+                  ParsedAttr::AT_Overloadable))
             S.Diag(FTI.getEllipsisLoc(), diag::err_ellipsis_first_param);
 
         if (FTI.NumParams && FTI.Params[0].Param == nullptr) {
diff --git a/clang/test/Sema/overloadable.c b/clang/test/Sema/overloadable.c
--- a/clang/test/Sema/overloadable.c
+++ b/clang/test/Sema/overloadable.c
@@ -248,3 +248,14 @@
   // if take_fn is passed a void (**)(void *), we'll get a warning.
   take_fn(fn);
 }
+
+// PR53805
+// We previously failed to consider the attribute being written before the
+// declaration when considering whether to allow a variadic signature with no
+// other parameters, and so we handled these cases differently.
+__attribute__((overloadable)) void can_overload_1(...); // ok, was previously rejected
+void can_overload_2(...) __attribute__((overloadable)); // ok
+[[clang::overloadable]] void can_overload_3(...);       // ok, was previously rejected
+void can_overload_4 [[clang::overloadable]] (...);      // ok
+void cannot_overload(...) [[clang::overloadable]];      // expected-error {{ISO C requires a named parameter before '...'}} \
+                                                        // expected-error {{'overloadable' attribute cannot be applied to types}}