UNDERSTATEMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does understatement mean? 

• UNDERSTATEMENT (noun)
  The noun UNDERSTATEMENT has 1 sense:

1. a statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said

  Familiarity information: UNDERSTATEMENT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNDERSTATEMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("understatement" is a kind of...):

statement (a message that is stated or declared; a communication (oral or written) setting forth particulars or facts etc)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "understatement"):

litotes; meiosis (understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary))

Antonym:

overstatement (making to seem more important than it really is)

Derivation:

understate (represent as less significant or important)

 Context examples 

To say that 2020 starts with a powerful emphasis on money is an understatement.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

To say you will be fairly obsessed with money matters is an understatement, for Mars will tour your eighth house of other people’s money.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

You are an earth sign, and with Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn in earthy Capricorn, Uranus and Venus in earth-sign Taurus, the full moon in earth-sign Virgo, and Neptune and the Sun in wildly compatible water-sign Pisces, to say you will be in your element this month is an understatement.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)