Definition of 'understate'
Word forms: 3rd person singular present tense understates
, present participle understating
, past tense, past participle understated
verb
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
British English pronunciation
American English pronunciation
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Word Frequency
understate in British English
verb
1.
to state (something) in restrained terms, often to obtain an ironic effect
2.
to state that (something, such as a number) is less than it is
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Word Frequency
understate in American English
verb transitiveWord forms: ˌunderˈstated or ˌunderˈstating
1.
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Derived forms
understatement (ˌunderˈstatement)
noun
Word Frequency
understate in American English
(ˌʌndərˈsteit)
transitive verbWord forms: -stated, -stating
Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019
by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Derived forms
understatement (ˌʌndərˈsteitmənt, ˈʌndərˌsteit-) noun
Word origin
[1815–25; under- + state]Examples of 'understate' in a sentence
understate
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In other languages
understate
British English: understate
VERB /ˌʌndəˈsteɪt/
If you understate something, you describe it in a way that suggests that it is less important or serious than it really is.
The government chooses deliberately to understate the increase in prices.
- American English: understate /ʌndərˈsteɪt/
- Brazilian Portuguese: minimizar
- Chinese: 不充分陈述
- European Spanish: minimizar
- French: minimiser
- German: herunterspielen
- Italian: minimizzare
- Japanese: 実際より少なく言う
- Korean: 실제보다 축소해 말하다
- European Portuguese: minimizar
- Latin American Spanish: minimizar
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Definition of understate from the Collins English Dictionary
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