understate

English

Etymology

From under- +‎ state.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

understate (third-person singular simple present understates, present participle understating, simple past and past participle understated)

1. (transitive) To state (something) with less completeness than needed; to minimise or downplay.

   To call it a calculated bet understates the risk; it is a Hail Mary pass.

2. (transitive) To state (something) with a lack of emphasis, in order to express irony.
3. To state a quantity that is too low.

   Coordinate term: underestimate

   The company had been understating its liabilities for years.

Synonyms

• (state with lack of emphasis): trivialize

Antonyms

• overstate, exaggerate

Related terms

• understated (“restrained, unpretentious”)
• understatement

Translations

to state something with less completeness than needed

• Bulgarian: премълчавам (bg) (premǎlčavam)
• Finnish: vähätellä (fi)
• German: untertreiben (de)
• Japanese: 矮小化する (ja) (waishōka suru)
• Polish: niedomówić, niedookreślić
• Russian: преуменьша́ть (ru) (preumenʹšátʹ), занижать (ru) (zanižatʹ), недооценивать (ru) (nedoocenivatʹ)
• Spanish: subestimar (es)

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

• Finnish: vähätellä (fi)

to state a quantity that is too low

• Bulgarian: омаловажавам (bg) (omalovažavam)
• Finnish: ilmoittaa todellista pienemmäksi

Anagrams

• undertaste