exaggerate

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] 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.dʒə.ɹeɪt/, /ɪɡˈzæ.dʒə.ɹeɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

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

   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.

Synonyms

• big up
• overexaggerate
• overstate

Antonyms

• (overstate): belittle, downplay, understate, trivialize

Derived terms

Derived terms

• exaggeratedly
• exaggeratingly
• exaggerative
• exaggeratively

• exaggerativeness
• exaggerator
• exaggeratory

Related terms

• exaggeration

Translations

to overstate, to describe more than is fact

• Albanian: zmadhoj (sq), teproj (sq)
• Arabic: بَالَغَ (bālaḡa)
• Azerbaijani: şişirtmək (az), mübaliğə etmək
• Bulgarian: преувеличавам (bg) (preuveličavam)
• Catalan: exagerar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 誇大／夸大 (zh) (kuādà), 夸大 (zh) (kuādà), 誇張／夸张 (zh) (kuāzhāng), 夸张 (zh) (kuāzhāng)

• Czech: přehánět (cs)
• Danish: overdrive
• Dutch: overdrijven (nl)
• Esperanto: troigi
• Finnish: liioitella (fi)
• French: exagérer (fr), outrer (fr)
• Georgian: გადაჭარბება (gadač̣arbeba), გაზვიადება (gazviadeba)
• German: übertreiben (de)
• Greek: υπερβάλλω (el) (ypervállo), παραφουσκώνω (el) (parafouskóno), μεγαλοποιώ (el) (megalopoió), παρακάνω (el) (parakáno)
• Hebrew: הגזים (he) (higzím)
• Hungarian: túloz (hu), eltúloz (hu)
• Icelandic: ýkja, yfirdrífa
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Indonesian: membesar-besarkan (id), melebih-lebihkan (id)
• Italian: esagerare (it)
• Japanese: 誇張する (ja) (kochō suru), 大袈裟に言う (ōgesa ni iu)
• Korean: 과대시하다 (gwadaesi-hada), 과장하다 (ko) (gwajang-hada)
• Lun Bawang: mefoot
• Macedonian: преувеличува (preuveličuva)
• Maori: tahupera, whakamōmona kōrero, hau pirau (idiomatic)
• Norwegian: overdrive (no)

  Bokmål: overdrive (no), ta i

• Persian: گزاف گفتن (gazâf goftan)
• Polish: wyolbrzymiać (pl), przesadzać (pl)
• Portuguese: exagerar (pt)
• Quechua: anchachay
• Romanian: exagera (ro)
• Russian: преувели́чивать (ru) impf (preuvelíčivatʹ), преувели́чить (ru) pf (preuvelíčitʹ), утри́ровать (ru) (utrírovatʹ)
• Spanish: exagerar (es)
• Swedish: överdriva (sv), ta i (sv)
• Turkish: abartmak (tr), mübalağa etmek (tr)
• Volapük: tuükön (vo)

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.

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Latin

Pronunciation

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

Verb

(deprecated template usage) exaggerāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of exaggerō