exaggerate

English

Etymology

From Latin exaggeratus, past participle of exaggerare (“to heap up, increase, enlarge, magnify, amplify, exaggerate”), from ex (“out, up”) + aggerare (“to heap up”), from agger (“a pile, heap, mound, dike, mole, pier, etc.”), from aggerere, adgerere (“to bring together”), from ad (“to, toward”) +‎ gerere (“to carry”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛɡˈzæ.d͡ʒə.ɹeɪt/, /ɪɡˈzæ.d͡ʒə.ɹeɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ex‧ag‧ger‧ate

Verb

exaggerate (third-person singular simple present exaggerates, present participle exaggerating, simple past and past participle exaggerated)

1. To overstate, to describe more than is fact.

   I've told you a billion times not to exaggerate!

   He said he'd slept with hundreds of girls, but I know he's exaggerating. The real number is about ten.

Synonyms

• big up
• overexaggerate
• overstate
• hyperbolize

Antonyms

• (overstate): belittle, downplay, understate, trivialize

Derived terms

Derived terms

• exaggeratedly
• exaggeratingly
• exaggerative
• exaggeratively
• exaggerativeness
• exaggerator
• exaggeratory

Related terms

• exaggeration

Translations

to overstate, to describe more than is fact

• Albanian: zmadhoj (sq), teproj (sq)
• Arabic: بَالَغَ‎ (bālaḡa)
• Azerbaijani: şişirtmək (az), mübaliğə etmək
• Bashkir: арттырыу (arttırıw)
• Bulgarian: преувеличавам (bg) (preuveličavam)
• Catalan: exagerar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 誇大／夸大 (zh) (kuādà), 誇張／夸张 (zh) (kuāzhāng)

• Czech: přehánět (cs)
• Danish: overdrive
• Dutch: overdrijven (nl)
• Esperanto: troigi (eo)
• Finnish: liioitella (fi)
• French: exagérer (fr), outrer (fr)
• Georgian: გადაჭარბება (gadač̣arbeba), გაზვიადება (gazviadeba)
• German: übertreiben (de)
• Greek: υπερβάλλω (el) (ypervállo), παραφουσκώνω (el) (parafouskóno), μεγαλοποιώ (el) (megalopoió), παρακάνω (el) (parakáno)
• Hebrew: הגזים‎ (he) (higzím)
• Hungarian: túloz (hu), eltúloz (hu)
• Icelandic: ýkja, yfirdrífa
• Indonesian: membesar-besarkan (id), melebih-lebihkan (id)
• Italian: esagerare (it)
• Japanese: 誇張する (ja) (kochō suru), 大袈裟に言う (ja) (ōgesa ni iu)
• Korean: 과대시하다 (gwadaesi-hada), 과장하다 (ko) (gwajang-hada)
• Latin: verbīs augeō
• Lun Bawang: mefoot
• Macedonian: преувеличува (preuveličuva)
• Maori: tahupera, whakamōmona kōrero, hau pirau (idiomatic)
• Norwegian: overdrive (no)

  Bokmål: overdrive (no), ta i

• Persian: گزاف گفتن‎ (gazâf goftan)
• Polish: wyolbrzymiać (pl), przesadzać (pl)
• Portuguese: exagerar (pt)
• Quechua: anchachay
• Romanian: exagera (ro)
• Russian: преувели́чивать (ru) impf (preuvelíčivatʹ), преувели́чить (ru) pf (preuvelíčitʹ), утри́ровать (ru) (utrírovatʹ)
• Spanish: exagerar (es)
• Swedish: överdriva (sv), ta i (sv)
• Turkish: abartmak (tr), mübalağa etmek (tr)
• Volapük: tuükön (vo)

Further reading

• exaggerate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• exaggerate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• exaggerate at OneLook Dictionary Search

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ek.saɡ.ɡeˈraː.te/, [ɛks̠äɡːɛˈräːt̪ɛ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ek.sad.d͡ʒeˈra.te/, [eɡzädː͡ʒeˈräːt̪e]

Verb

exaggerāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of exaggerō