overstate

«overstate» in Mova's school dictionary: to make it sound bigger, better or more important than it… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

verb (overstate, overstates, overstated, overstating)

meaning for a pupil

To overstate something is to make it sound bigger, better or more important than it really is; to exaggerate. tree →

sense in the lessons

In English and news lessons: a writer who overstates loses trust. Phrases: «It's hard to overstate…» means it is extremely important.

examples

• Don't overstate how good your project is. tree →
• It is hard to overstate how important water is. tree →
• The advert overstated what the toy could do. tree →
• The danger was overstated in the news. tree →
• He overstated his score to impress us. tree →
• Writers should not overstate their evidence. tree →

note

Past: overstated. Noun: overstatement. Opposite: understate. In maths, if you overstate a number, it is bigger than the real one.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «overstate» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.