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# 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/overstate/#m1)

### 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/overstate/#x1)
- It is hard to overstate how important water is. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/overstate/#x2)
- The advert overstated what the toy could do. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/overstate/#x3)
- The danger was overstated in the news. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/overstate/#x4)
- He overstated his score to impress us. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/overstate/#x5)
- Writers should not overstate their evidence. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/overstate/#x6)

### 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/overstate/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.