from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun A disclosure or statement that is less than complete.
noun Restraint or lack of emphasis in expression, as for rhetorical effect.
noun Restraint in artistic expression.
from The Century Dictionary.
noun The act of understating. That which is understated; a statement of less than the full truth.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun The act of understating, or the condition of being understated; that which is understated; a statement below the truth.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun a disclosure or statement that is less than complete
noun restraint or lack of emphasis, especially for ironic effect
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun a statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word understatement.
Examples
In the end, Mr. Castro, 34, opted for what he described as understatement: pink eye shadow, a bright pink V-neck shirt and intermittent outbursts of tears.
In the end, Mr. Castro, 34, opted for what he described as understatement: pink eye shadow, a bright pink V-neck shirt and intermittent outbursts of tears.
In the end, Mr. Castro, 34, opted for what he described as understatement: pink eye shadow, a bright pink V-neck shirt and intermittent outbursts of tears.
In the end, Mr. Castro, 34, opted for what he described as understatement: pink eye shadow, a bright pink V-neck shirt and intermittent outbursts of tears.
Business Standard Taxman says DLF diverted funds, questions role of auditors The I-T authorities have slapped a tax liability of Rs 300-400 crore on realty leader DLF over what they called understatement of income and fund diversion by the company.
uselessness commented on the word understatement
Understatement is always best.
January 25, 2007