understate

From under- +‎ state.

• IPA^(key): /ʌndəˈsteɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: un‧der‧state

understate (third-person singular simple present understates, present participle understating, simple past and past participle understated)

1. (transitive) To state (something) with less completeness than needed; to minimise or downplay.

   To call it a calculated bet understates the risk; it is a Hail Mary pass.

2. (transitive) To state (something) with a lack of emphasis, in order to express irony.
3. To state a quantity that is too low.

   Coordinate term: underestimate

   The company had been understating its liabilities for years.

• (state with lack of emphasis): trivialize

• overstate, exaggerate

• understated (“restrained, unpretentious”)
• understatement

• undertaste