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What is "exaggeration"

Crossword clues for exaggeration

exaggeration
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
exaggeration
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
gross
▪ But unless there is gross exaggeration or fabrication of symptoms, these should not he described as Meadow's syndrome.
▪ The first sentence in that passage is, of course, a gross exaggeration.
▪ It was a gross exaggeration, but there was a grain of truth in it.
slight
▪ One might with only slight exaggeration claim that firelight illuminates virtually every positive page in Victorian novels.
■ VERB
say
▪ It is no exaggeration to say that the Republican establishment detests McCain.
▪ It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I lived for that owl during that very intense period of training.
▪ It is no exaggeration to say that these three introductions were of enormous importance to the future of the Army.
▪ It s no exaggeration to say that at least 7 minutes were lost in 3 particular stoppages in the first half.
▪ It is not an exaggeration to say that no woman will be safe once he is out of prison.
▪ It is no exaggeration to say that the Bayeux speech established a new direction for postwar Gaullism.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
wilful damage/disobedience/exaggeration etc
▪ He then smashed up his cell and began his detention with a three month sentence for assault and wilful damage.
▪ Unbelievably, they were later fined for, respectively, wilful damage and assault, and obstructing the police.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ How much of the story was exaggeration is impossible to say.
▪ It is an exaggeration to say that he earns more money than anyone I know, but he is certainly very well paid.
▪ It would be a gross exaggeration to describe the film as a masterpiece, but it has some good moments.
▪ Jim's not fat exactly - that's an exaggeration. He's just a little overweight.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Among those literary wanderers of the day who sought a wide and appreciative audience, exaggeration was the fashion.
▪ My sense of proportion left me; my judgment took on the grotesque exaggerations of a cruel cartoon.
▪ Or is it packed with half-truths, exaggerations, and even lies?
▪ The estimate was exaggerated in proportion to the original exaggeration of the size of the fleet.
▪ These exaggerations are offered to define the limits rather than to present accurate profiles, but they do highlight an educational dilemma.
▪ We now look at the gothic exaggeration and moody drama of Victorian landscapes and we learn of their romantic yearnings.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Exaggeration

Exaggeration \Ex*ag`ger*a"tion\, n. [L. exaggeratio : cf. F. exag['e]ration.]

  1. The act of heaping or piling up. [Obs.] ``Exaggeration of sand.''
    --Sir M. Hale.

  2. The act of exaggerating; the act of doing or representing in an excessive manner; a going beyond the bounds of truth reason, or justice; a hyperbolical representation; hyperbole; overstatement.

    No need of an exaggeration of what they saw.
    --I. Taylor.

  3. (Paint.) A representation of things beyond natural life, in expression, beauty, power, vigor.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
exaggeration

1560s, from Latin exaggerationem (nominative exaggeratio) "elevation, exaltation" (figurative), noun of action from past participle stem of exaggerare "amplify, magnify," literally "heap up" (see exaggerate).

Wiktionary
exaggeration

n. 1 The act of heaping or piling up. 2 The act of exaggerating; the act of doing or representing in an excessive manner; a going beyond the bounds of truth, reason, or justice; a hyperbolical representation; hyperbole; overstatement. 3 A representation of things beyond natural life, in expression, beauty, power, vigor.

WordNet
exaggeration

  1. n. extravagant exaggeration [syn: hyperbole]

  2. the act of making something more noticeable than usual; "the dance involved a deliberate exaggeration of his awkwardness"

  3. making to seem more important than it really is [syn: overstatement, magnification] [ant: understatement]

Wikipedia
Exaggeration

Exaggeration is a representation of something in an excessive manner. The exaggerator has been a familiar figure in Western culture since at least Aristotle's discussion of the alazon: 'the boaster is regarded as one who pretends to have distinguished qualities which he possesses either not at all or to a lesser degree than he pretends...exaggerating'.

It is the opposite of minimisation.

Words or expressions associated with exaggeration include:

Usage examples of "exaggeration".

It is impossible to justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of modern travellers, who have sometimes stretched the limits of Constantinople over the adjacent villages of the European, and even of the Asiatic coast.

With the one-sided exaggeration incident to most aphorisms, this is true.

By 1978 the ensuing misrepresentations and exaggerations formed the basis of an OSHA report that predicted 58,000 to 73,000 cancer deaths each year from asbestos, on the basis of which the government upped its estimate of industry-related cancers from 2 percent to 40 percent.

Luke, Cleed, Princess Marxia, Baby Liz - all were portrayed in mammoth exaggeration upon the gaudy, painted sheets of canvas.

But a brother coleopterist like yourself is always a welcome guest, and I shall be delighted if you will look over my collection, which I think that I may without exaggeration describe as the best in Europe.

She had studiously refrained from exaggeration, and I could not help confessing that she was to be pitied.

It would be no great exaggeration to call diabetes a spiritual experience, in much the same vein as a bar mitzvah, a sacrament, or the moment of enlightenment.

Sadler himself said that the petition was a mere election paper, made up of wanton exaggerations, and unfounded misstatements, for electioneering purposes.

But now, in the few days since he had taken Glair into his house, he came to realize that that had been an exaggeration.

The lieutenant-colonel was particularly conspicuous by his wounds, for, without exaggeration, he had lost one-fourth of his head.

She was magnificently dressed, and it is no exaggeration to say that she had on diamonds worth five hundred thousand francs.

There is here no imputation against the honesty of any writer, even when carelessness, exaggeration and inaccuracy are not only alleged, but demonstrated to exist.

Of personal contributions to the literature of the subject, during the past third of a century, nearly everything has been more or less polemical, called forth by either exaggeration of utility, inaccuracy of assertion, or misstatement of fact.

The satirist induces laughter by his exaggeration, the ironist induces indignation by his reversal.

It did not even seem exaggeration when some one declared that lie had seen a dead man with more than a gallon of lice on him.