understate

From under- +‎ state.

• IPA^(key): /ʌndəˈsteɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: un‧der‧state

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.

   Synonyms: downplay, trivialize; see also Thesaurus:trivialize

   Antonyms: overstate, exaggerate; see also Thesaurus:exaggerate

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

2. (transitive) To state (something) with an intentional lack of emphasis, in order to express irony.

   She is the queen of understatement: she understated her critique masterfully.

3. To state a quantity that is too low.

   Synonyms: underrate, underrate; see also Thesaurus:underestimate

   Antonyms: overstate; see also Thesaurus:overestimate

   Coordinate term: underestimate

   The company had been understating its liabilities for years.

Careless usage often blunders regarding understating and overstating: If the speaker or writer considers X very important, then the importance of X should not be understated (clearly and precisely speaking) and cannot be overstated (speaking in a way that is literally false [any fact can be overstated] but hyperbolically intentional and figurative). It is not uncommon to hear that "the importance of X cannot be understated [sic]" as a flubbed way of expressing what was meant (i.e., that it [precisely] should not be understated or [figuratively] cannot be overstated). To say that X "should not be overstated" is to emphasize the limits of its importance, but a careless speaker or writer may have meant the opposite.

• understated (“restrained, unpretentious”)
• understatement

• undertaste