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Understatement

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A figure of speech that intentionally makes a situation seem less important

Detailed Definition
Understatement is a rhetorical device that deliberately minimizes the significance of something—often for ironic, humorous, or poignant effect—by expressing it in restrained or muted terms that contrast with its actual gravity or intensity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Understatement appears in Emily Dickinson: “Parting is all we know of heaven”; modern example: Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” describes brother’s death with “a poppy bruise”; understatement uses restraint for emotional power; it’s common in elegy and lyric; this device avoids sentimentality; it often employs litotes (“not unkind”).
Additional Notes
Understatement: Deliberately minimizing the significance of something for ironic or rhetorical effect (e.g., “It’s just a scratch” after a major wound); includes litotes and meiosis.
Other Meanings of “Understatement”
Also Known As
Meiosis Deliberate minimization Litotes Downplaying Litote
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