exaggerate

English

Etymology

From Latin exaggeratus, past participle of exaggerare (“to heap up, increase, enlarge, magnify, amplify, exaggerate”), from ex (“out, up”) + aggerare (“to heap up”), from agger (“a pile, heap, mound, dike, mole, pier, etc.”), from aggerere, adgerere (“to bring together”), from ad (“to, toward”) +‎ gerere (“to carry”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛɡˈzæ.d͡ʒə.ɹeɪt/, /ɪɡˈzæ.d͡ʒə.ɹeɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ex‧ag‧ger‧ate

Verb

exaggerate (third-person singular simple present exaggerates, present participle exaggerating, simple past and past participle exaggerated)

1. To overstate, to describe more than is fact.

   Synonyms: big up, overexaggerate, overstate, hyperbolize

   Antonyms: belittle, downplay, understate, trivialize

   I've told you a billion times not to exaggerate!

   He said he’d slept with hundreds of girls, but I know he’s exaggerating. The real number is about ten.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

exaggerate (comparative more exaggerate, superlative most exaggerate)

1. Exaggerative; overblown.
   • 1901, Valentin Matcas, The Human Addictions:

     And in general, if it is a natural feeling, let it be, but at normal, living levels, not too exaggerate.

   • 2005, Daniel Marin, Megator, page 4:

     Water was invading, like some loving arms, some protecting wings, but its love and care were too exaggerate, they were deadly.

   • 2012, Joy Damousi, Mariano Ben Plotkin, Psychoanalysis and Politics, page 202:

     You will leave [the camp] and when confronted to the smallest inconvenience you will have again these reactions that, for me, are very exaggerate.

   • 2012, Yair Goldreich, The Climate of Israel: Observation, Research and Application, page 132:

     From this comparison, it seems that the data in Table 7.7 are reasonable, while Ashbel's values are exaggerate.

Further reading

• “exaggerate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “exaggerate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “exaggerate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ek.saɡ.ɡeˈraː.te/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ek.sad.d͡ʒeˈra.te/,

Verb

exaggerāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of exaggerō