What are the types of understatement?

There are two main types of understatement: ironic understatement and, well, non-ironic understatement. In order to fully understand understatement in all its forms, it’s important to have a good grasp of these two different ways of using it.

What is the technique of understatement?

Definition: This literary device refers to the practice of drawing attention to a fact that is already obvious and noticeable. Understating a fact is usually done by way of sarcasm, irony, wryness or any other form of dry humor. Understating something is akin to exaggerating its obviousness as a means of humor.

What is a understatement in reading?

One of the most useful and powerful devices for the fiction writer is understatement. You tell the reader less so that the reader knows more. Instead of having everything spelt out, the reader is given, in a very careful way, just enough information for the imagination to go to work.

What is understatement example?

An understatement is a figure of speech employed by writers or speakers to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is. For example, you win 10 million dollars in a lottery. When you tell a news reporter “I am delighted,” you are making an understatement.

What is another word for understatement?

In this page you can discover 18 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for understatement, like: modest statement, less than the truth, overstatement, underestimate, belittlement, underestimation, restrained statement, litotes, restraint, avoidance of overemphasis or exaggeration and …

Why is understatement used?

An understatement is a tool that helps to develop other figures of speech, such as irony and sarcasm, by deliberately decreasing the severity of a situation, when an intense response is expected by the listeners or the readers.

What is an understatement example?

A comedic understatement would be: “It is only a small scratch.” Describing a huge storm overnight, a comedic understatement would be: “Looks like it rained a bit last night.” You just had to work a double shift. A comedic understatement would be: “I have a little bit of a temper.”

What means overstatement?

the act of describing or explaining something in a way that makes it seem more important or more serious than it really is: It would be an overstatement to say that she deserved to win the race. Synonym. exaggeration.

How do you use understatement in a sentence?

Examples of ‘understatement’ in a sentence understatement

1. He called it a postscript but he had always had a taste for understatement.
2. she said, hitting the wrong note, making it sound like an understatement for his current situation.
3. `She can be a bit of a snob sometimes,’ Sally said with gross understatement.

What is an example of overstatement?

Overstatement means exactly what it says-exaggerating something or “over” stating its meaning, value, or importance. Examples of Overstatement in Literature: In his description of Juliet’s beauty, Romeo uses overstatement in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

What is an example of understatement?

What does understatement mean?

Definition of understatement. 1 : a statement that represents something as smaller or less intense, or less important than it really is : a statement that understates something To say that I was surprised by this outcome would be an understatement.

What is understatement in writing?

An understatement is when you represent something as less than what it is. This can be done in writing or in speech. When you make an understatement, the issue at hand is minimalized or made to seem less important or severe. This can be done for an ironic effect or simply to be polite. An understatement is an important figure of speech.

What is an ironic understatement?

Ironic Understatement. Something is ironic when it concerns the gap between how something appears and how it really is . Most of the time when people refer to understatement, they’re referring to ironic understatement, which just means that the speaker is using understatement to say one thing with the intention of actually communicating something quite different.