1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Understate

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

v. To state with less completeness or truth than seems warranted by the facts.

v. To express with restraint or lack of emphasis, especially ironically or for rhetorical effect.

v. To state (a quantity, for example) that is too low: understate corporate financial worth.

verb-intransitive. To give an understatement.

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

v. to state something with less completeness than needed; to minimise or downplay.

v. to state something with a lack of emphasis, in order to express irony.

v. to state a quantity that is too low.

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

v. To state or represent less strongly than may be done truthfully.

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To state or represent less strongly than the truth will admit; state too low: as, to understate an evil.

To say less than the full truth.

WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

v. represent as less significant or important

Word Usage

"You spend your life railing against central economic planning, and you need a conspiracy theory to explain why an economic projection was wrong? should be "understate," or "underestimate.""

Antonym

overstate

Verb Form

understated understates understating

Hypernym

Words that are more generic or abstract

inform

Hyponym

trivialize trivialise

Same Context

Words that are found in similar contexts

half-resentful demand-pull spit-shined starcruiser excitant