exaggeration
Americannoun
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exaggerations
plural
-
the act of exaggerating or overstating.
-
an instance of exaggerating; an overstatement.
His statement concerning the size of his income is a gross exaggeration.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of exaggeration
1555–65; < Latin exaggerātiōn- (stem of exaggerātiō ), equivalent to exaggerāt ( us ) ( see exaggerate) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
If you're prone to exaggeration, it means you habitually overstate the truth. If you have a dog and a hamster, it would be an exaggeration to describe yourself as "practically Doctor Dolittle," living in a house full of animals. When you make something showier, or more noticeable than normal, that's also called exaggeration. The exaggeration of your hand movements might be necessary on stage so the audience can see them, but in real life it just looks silly. Exaggeration comes from the Latin word exaggerare, which means to magnify or to heap or pile on.
Vocabulary lists containing exaggeration
AP English Lit exam terms
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Essential Literary Terms
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Theodore Roosevelt on "The Man with the Muck Rake" (1906)
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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:
In his opening statement Monday, defense attorney Michael Sanft told the jury his client has a penchant for exaggeration and urged them not to interpret Davis’s statements about the shooting as fact.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
My general note is particular to the genre: Comedy works best when exaggeration arises the way it does in nature, as a fact of personality rather than as a calculated theatrical effect.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The word "rot" is clearly an exaggeration, but new research suggests that heavy television viewing may still have meaningful consequences for brain health.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
It is not an exaggeration to say this era could be remembered for the crimes against cricket committed in Australia, even if England do regain the Ashes on home soil next summer.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
“You said we were all in danger...but that was just an exaggeration, wasn’t it?”
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
Strauss regularly goes off the rails in his exaggerations, but with Dudamel there are no railing critics or anything thing else, not that he doesn’t have cause.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
"When I used to give a demo, I used to get so excited. I was like a kid," Molyneux admits of some of his past exaggerations.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026
Owens’ story is backed by innuendo, exaggerations, outright falsehoods, and, in several instances, messages delivered through Owens’ own dreams.
From Slate ● Feb. 27, 2026
More important, we should be wary of the vast chasm between the frenzied exaggerations of the media that attend this case and its actual significance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
I’ve always suspected that notions like a “hot hand” or a “clutch hitter” or a “team that always comes back” were exaggerations used by sports- writers and sportscasters just to have something to talk about.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
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.
