understate

under- +‎ state

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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