downplay

English

Etymology

Synthetic form of the phrase play down.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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Verb

downplay (third-person singular simple present downplays, present participle downplaying, simple past and past participle downplayed)

1. (transitive) To de-emphasize; to present or portray as less important or consequential.

   He would sometimes downplay his Princeton education by saying simply that he went to school in New Jersey.

Usage notes

• The synonymous alternative form play down is slightly more formal, or slightly less informal.

Synonyms

• play down
• trivialize
• understate

Translations

to de-emphasize; to present or portray something as less important or consequential

• Arabic: قَلَّلَ‎ (qallala)
• Bulgarian: омаловажавам (bg) (omalovažavam)
• Catalan: empetitir (ca), minimitzar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 淡化 (zh) (dànhuà)

• Czech: bagatelizovat (cs) impf
• Dutch: bagatelliseren (nl), geringschatten, minimaliseren (nl)
• Finnish: vähätellä (fi)

• French: minimiser (fr)
• German: herunterspielen (de), verharmlosen (de), kleinreden (de), bagatellisieren (de)
• Hebrew: גִמֵּד‎ (he) (giméd), הִצְנִיעַ‎ (hitsnía)
• Italian: minimizzare (it), sminuire (it)
• Polish: lekceważyć (pl) impf, zlekceważyć (pl) pf, bagatelizować (pl) impf, zbagatelizować (pl) pf, bimbać (pl) impf (colloquial)
• Russian: преуменьша́ть (ru) (preumenʹšátʹ)
• Spanish: minimizar (es), quitar hierro (es)

Anagrams

• play down, playdown