understatement

American  

[uhn-der-steyt-muhnt, uhn-der-steyt-] / ˌʌn dərˈsteɪt mənt, ˈʌn dərˌsteɪt- /

noun

understatements plural

1. the act or an instance of understating, or representing in a weak or restrained way that is not borne out by the facts.

   The journalist wrote that the earthquake had caused some damage. This turned out to be a massive understatement of the devastation.

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understatement British  

/ ˌʌndəˈsteɪtmənt /

noun

1. the act or an instance of stating something in restrained terms, or as less than it is

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understatement Cultural  

1. A form of irony in which something is intentionally represented as less than it is: “Hank Aaron was a pretty good ball player.”

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• understatements
  plural

Etymology

Origin of understatement

under- + statement

Explanation

You make an understatement when you say a lot less than you could. If you say "We didn't do our best" when your team loses 56 to 0, that's quite an understatement. An understatement can be just the thing to make someone feel better. For example, if you are a terrible dancer and everyone seems to be pointing and laughing at you, your friend might say your style is unique. She's not lying, but she is making sad truth easier to deal with. Understatement can also be used humorously — if you have a really difficult, scary experience, you might say, "Well, that was interesting."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

understatement understatements

To say that things have dramatically changed in the United States since I was a child in the 1960s is an understatement.

From Salon ● May 29, 2026

To say his first season in charge did not go to plan would be an understatement.

From BBC ● May 27, 2026

To say he is not your average 20-year-old would be an understatement.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026

To call the recent rally surprising would be an understatement.

From Barron's ● May 1, 2026

With Zu still crying in the backseat and me having no idea where we had been headed in the first place, to say I was relieved was an understatement.

From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken

As for the camp factor, many massive understatements in the script will trigger appreciative howls of laughter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025

It was one of the greatest understatements of all time.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2025

Those are understatements akin to calling the Amazon a creek or the Grand Canyon a ditch.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 29, 2022

In the world of understatements, saying there’s a lot of television out there has to rank among the boldest.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2022

Possibly there would be greater understatements in the remaining ninety-nine years of the Twenty-first Century, but Carlstrom doubted it.

From A Prize for Edie by Bone, Jesse F. (Jesse Franklin)