"understatement" meaning in English

See understatement in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: understatements [plural]
Etymology: under- + statement or understate + -ment Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|under|statement}} under- + statement, {{suffix|en|understate|ment}} understate + -ment Head templates: {{en-noun|-|s}} understatement (usually uncountable, plural understatements)
  1. (uncountable, rhetoric) A figure of speech whereby something is made to seem smaller or less important than it actually is, either through phrasing or lack of emphasis, often for ironic effect. Tags: rhetoric, uncountable, usually Categories (topical): Rhetoric, Figures of speech Synonyms: meiosis Translations (statement less than complete): zmírnění [neuter] (Czech), underdrivelse [common-gender] (Danish), maltroigo (Esperanto), vähätelmä (Finnish), litote (French), peu dire (French), Untertreibung (German), Tiefstapelei [feminine] (German), לשון המעטה (lashón hame'atá) [feminine] (Hebrew), enyhe kifejezés (Hungarian), visszafogott megfogalmazás (Hungarian), maolaisnéis [feminine] (Irish), niedomówienie (Polish), niedookreślenie (Polish), litotă [feminine] (Romanian), преуменьше́ние (preumenʹšénije) [neuter] (Russian), underdrift [common-gender] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-understatement-en-noun-gt3K9fQY Disambiguation of Figures of speech: 73 12 15 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with under-, English terms suffixed with -ment Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 13 41 Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with under-: 52 18 29 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -ment: 43 21 36 Disambiguation of 'statement less than complete': 79 7 14
  2. (countable) An instance of such phrasing or lack of emphasis. Tags: countable, usually
    Sense id: en-understatement-en-noun-a0YT7EGJ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -ment Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 13 41 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -ment: 43 21 36
  3. An incomplete disclosure that intentionally withholds relevant information. Tags: uncountable, usually
    Sense id: en-understatement-en-noun-xik2sXvP Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -ment Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 13 41 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -ment: 43 21 36
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: understate, do a lot of work

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for understatement meaning in English (6.2kB)

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          "word": "meiosis"
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        {
          "_dis1": "79 7 14",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "statement less than complete",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
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          "word": "zmírnění"
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        {
          "_dis1": "79 7 14",
          "code": "da",
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          "sense": "statement less than complete",
          "tags": [
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          "_dis1": "79 7 14",
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
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          "_dis1": "79 7 14",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "statement less than complete",
          "word": "vähätelmä"
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        {
          "_dis1": "79 7 14",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "statement less than complete",
          "word": "litote"
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        {
          "_dis1": "79 7 14",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "statement less than complete",
          "word": "peu dire"
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        {
          "_dis1": "79 7 14",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "statement less than complete",
          "word": "Untertreibung"
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          "_dis1": "79 7 14",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "statement less than complete",
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          "word": "Tiefstapelei"
        },
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          "roman": "lashón hame'atá",
          "sense": "statement less than complete",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "לשון המעטה"
        },
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          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "statement less than complete",
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          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "statement less than complete",
          "word": "visszafogott megfogalmazás"
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          "sense": "statement less than complete",
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          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "statement less than complete",
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      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "tags": [
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      ],
      "word": "zmírnění"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "underdrivelse"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "word": "maltroigo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "word": "vähätelmä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "word": "litote"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "word": "peu dire"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "word": "Untertreibung"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Tiefstapelei"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "roman": "lashón hame'atá",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "לשון המעטה"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "word": "enyhe kifejezés"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "word": "visszafogott megfogalmazás"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "maolaisnéis"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "word": "niedomówienie"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "word": "niedookreślenie"
    },
    {
      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "litotă"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "preumenʹšénije",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "преуменьше́ние"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "statement less than complete",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "underdrift"
    }
  ],
  "word": "understatement"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (a644e18 and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.