understatement
the act or an instance of understating, or representing in a weak or restrained way that is not borne out by the facts: The journalist wrote that the earthquake had caused some damage. This turned out to be a massive understatement of the devastation.
Origin of understatement
1Words Nearby understatement
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use understatement in a sentence
To say I’m disappointed, frustrated are all understatements.
Maryland’s newcomers lead the way in stunning rout at Penn State | Emily Giambalvo | November 8, 2020 | Washington PostIt is not an understatement to say that this is the most anticipated book release of the season—if not the year.
To call Nia Long an ageless beauty would be an understatement.
Happy Birthday Nia Long! These Photos Prove She Absolutely Doesn’t Age | Charli Penn | October 30, 2020 | Essence.comTo say that this has been a stressful year is a gross understatement.
To say that the travel industry has been hit hard by the pandemic is an understatement.
Are you ready to start traveling for work again? TripActions’ CEO is banking on it | Michal Lev-Ram, writer | September 15, 2020 | Fortune
That may sound like the understatement of the century, and maybe it is.
After the Israel Synagogue Massacre: A New Intifada? | Michael Tomasky | November 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAnd considering his massive music-industry thumb print, that “you oughta know” Jack Antonoff is an understatement.
The Rise of Jack Antonoff, the Taylor Swift Whisperer | Kevin Fallon | November 14, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTTo say that the past few years have been a watershed period of improvement for LGBT America is an understatement.
To say that James Gunn is ecstatic is a vast understatement.
‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Filmmaker James Gunn on His Glorious Space Opera and Rise to the A-List | Marlow Stern | August 3, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIt was a massive understatement when Frieden said, “This is a very delicate area, so to speak.”
Why Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Babies Keep Getting Herpes | Emily Shire | July 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHowells realized the unwisdom and weakness of dogmatic insistence, and the strength of understatement.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete | Albert Bigelow PaineThis is the typical understatement of Old English rhetoric: it can only point to deliberate treachery on the part of the Eotens.
Beowulf | R. W. ChambersThere is more danger of doing the injustice of understatement in commemorating a character so rounded and symmetrical.
You can say I have gone out on a trial run, which won't be a lie, only an understatement.
Her every manner convinced you comments as such were guilty of the grossest understatement.
The Land of Look Behind | Paul Cameron Brown
British Dictionary definitions for understatement
/ (ˌʌndəˈsteɪtmənt) /
the act or an instance of stating something in restrained terms, or as less than it is
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for understatement
A form of irony in which something is intentionally represented as less than it is: “Hank Aaron was a pretty good ball player.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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