exaggerate
Americanverb (used with object)
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exaggerates,
present (3rd person singular)
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exaggerated,
past participle, past
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exaggerating
present participle
verb (used without object)
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exaggerates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
exaggerated,
past participle, past
-
exaggerating
present participle
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
Derived Forms
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exaggerationnoun
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exaggeratornoun
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overexaggerateverb
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exaggerativeadjective
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nonexaggeratingadjective
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unexaggeratingadjective
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exaggeratinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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exaggeratesimple
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exaggeratessimple
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have exaggeratedperfect
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has exaggeratedperfect
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am exaggeratingprogressive
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are exaggeratingprogressive
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is exaggeratingprogressive
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have been exaggeratingperfect progressive
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has been exaggeratingperfect progressive
Past
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exaggeratedsimple
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had exaggeratedperfect
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was exaggeratingprogressive
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were exaggeratingprogressive
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had been exaggeratingperfect progressive
Future
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
Explanation
When you exaggerate you stretch the truth. Fishermen tend to exaggerate the size of their fish. And children tend to exaggerate the seriousness of their cuts in order to get cute Band-Aids. We all have a tendency to exaggerate. It makes our stories funnier, or more dramatic. After all, when you exaggerate, you're not really lying — you're just overstating things. The word exaggerate can also suggest that a particular characteristic is overdone or almost larger than life. If you describe someone as having an exaggerated limp, he or she might be walking like a gorilla.
Vocabulary lists containing exaggerate
Tier 2 Words for the SBAC ELA Items
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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.
See Examples For:
That said, I don’t want to exaggerate what’s happened to me so far.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
These two categories often gyrate up and down and exaggerate changes in GDP.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
Dalziel said: "She was a straightforward and calm witness. She did not exaggerate or embellish."
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
In climate data, "noise" refers to short-erm temperature changes that can temporarily hide or exaggerate the underlying trend.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
There was desperation in all she said, an emptiness at its core, or something excluded or unnamed that made her talk faster, and exaggerate with less conviction.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
"I doubt 'SI' will stick, in part because it exaggerates the current capacities of AI," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
One factor reinforcing Block’s motivation for shorting credit is his opinion that there is too much passive investing in the market that automatically exaggerates moves when they come.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 1, 2026
Divided by competing urges to “join in and stand out,” the dandy exaggerates style to the point of satire and social impertinence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
Tech’s dominance in the S&P 500, with the top 10 stocks comprising 40% of market value, exaggerates the current pullback.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2025
He exaggerates the difficulty of being a student, but his exaggeration reveals a general predicament.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
Riedels and Mericle find numerous ways in which these extra costs have been miscaptured or exaggerated and conclude that “most of the 20 basis points contribution to core PCE from this category reflects mismeasurement.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026
In explaining the gap, Yi describes what he calls a contamination cycle: Census figures were adjusted upward using education and household registration data that had themselves been exaggerated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
She added that "we won't need to AI it" - a reference to a TUV councillor who posted online an AI image which exaggerated the size of a loyalist rally in Portadown.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Muñoz admits he exaggerated his skill set to get his foot in the door, but he was determined to make the opportunity count.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Ugwu disliked the sly twist of his lips; he always visited at mealtimes and then said “Oh! Oh!” in exaggerated surprise when Olanna asked him to join them in “touching their hands to their mouths.”
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Lamnisos added it wasn't exaggerating to say that "life-saving health information isn't getting to the people who need it most".
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
I’m not exaggerating when I say this happens every single time we go to the movies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
What I was saying before is that they were exaggerating the threat.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026
Some economists question if the pattern is repeating itself, thus exaggerating the improvement in the labor market.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
“Maybe Coach was just exaggerating? Maybe Russ isn’t that good?”
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
