Wiktionary

exaggerate

English

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Etymology

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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

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  • IPA(key): /ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/, /ɪɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/
    • Audio (California):(file)
  • Hyphenation: ex‧ag‧ger‧ate

Verb

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

  1. To overstate, to describe more than the 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

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Translations

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Adjective

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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

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Latin

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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exaggerāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of exaggerō
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