understatement

figure of speech

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July 14, 2026

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Understatement is a figure of speech where something is intentionally described as less important or smaller than it actually is. This is also known as litotes, a conscious understatement that achieves emphasis through negation.1234

Examples of understatement include phrases like "not bad!" or "no mean feat". It can also be used in statements like "I may have overreacted a little," which could be considered "the understatement of the year" if the reaction was significant. The purpose is to draw attention to the true significance of something by downplaying it.45123

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rhetoric
Elements of rhetoric
…hyperbole (overstatement or exaggeration) or understatement, and metonymy (substituting one word for another which it suggests or to which it is in some way related—as part to whole, sometimes known as synecdoche). To the latter category belonged such figures as allegory, parallelism (constructing sentences or phrases that resemble one another…
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…hyperbole (overstatement or exaggeration) or understatement, and metonymy (substituting one word for another which it suggests or to which it is in some way related—as part to whole, sometimes known as synecdoche). To the latter category belonged such figures as allegory, parallelism (constructing sentences or phrases that resemble one another…
Read More