exaggerate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
-
to regard or represent as larger or greater, more important or more successful, etc, than is true
-
(tr) to make greater, more noticeable, etc, than usual
his new clothes exaggerated his awkwardness
Other Word Forms
- exaggeratingly adverb
- exaggeration noun
- exaggerative adjective
- exaggerator noun
- nonexaggerating adjective
- overexaggerate verb
- unexaggerating adjective
Etymology
Origin of exaggerate
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin exaggerātus “heaped up,” past participle of exaggerāre “to heap up,” from ex- ex- 1 + agger “heap” + -āre, infinitive verb suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He argued the “Man of Steel” persona as “totally exaggerated,” he told the New York Times.
A later generation of sociologists might have diagnosed Göring’s martial flamboyance as a form of “homeovestism”—that is, exaggerated and often impractical gender-normative dress or behavior intended to signal elite social status.
Taxpayers shouldn’t be allowed to donate their old socks and claim that they were designer items, exaggerating the value of the deduction.
There was also a widely-held belief that migrants calling from small boats exaggerated the distress, meaning the Coastguard underestimated the emergency.
From BBC
Haigh and team explain that the precious metals rally was chiefly propelled by inflows from exchange-traded funds and that influence has been exaggerated of late.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
