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.

Understatement in a Sentence 🔉

1. Saying he had gained a little weight was an understatement since he had put on thirty just last month.
2. To say that getting a home loan with bad credit is a small challenge would be a huge understatement.
3. Calling the affair a small mistake was an understatement the man’s wife would resent.

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.

An understatement would be: “I did OK on that test.” (Modest) You scrape the entire side of your car. An understatement would be: “It is only a small scratch.” (Comedic) Describing a huge storm overnight, an understatement would be: “Looks like it rained a bit last night.” (Comedic)

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!

—used to say that something is very large or very great The importance of tomorrow’s test cannot be overstated.

Overstatement is when you use language to exaggerate your intended meaning. These statements count as figurative language and are not meant to be taken literally. Also known as hyperbole, overstatement is used intentionally to emphasis the importance of your statement.

Personification gives human traits and qualities, such as emotions, desires, sensations, gestures and speech, often by way of a metaphor. Personification is much used in visual arts. Examples in writing are “the leaves waved in the wind”, “the ocean heaved a sigh” or “the Sun smiled at us”.

AP Language and Composition Rhetorical Terms which have appeared on previous exams. When the reader is aware of an inconsistency between a fictional or nonfictional character’s perception of a situation and the truth of that situation.

See if the statement made by the character conflicts with the setting intentionally or unintentionally.

1. If the character is using a mocking tone, this is verbal irony and indicates sarcasm.
2. If the character states this seriously without an ironic or sarcastic intent, then this is situational irony.