exaggerate meaning and examples

2025-09-05

Meaning

Exaggerate means to make something seem larger, more important, better, or worse than it really is. It refers to overstating the truth or stretching facts beyond reality.

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: Verb

  • Forms: exaggerate, exaggerates, exaggerated, exaggerating

  • Transitivity: Can be both transitive and intransitive

    • Transitive: exaggerate something
    • Intransitive: exaggerate (without object)

Typical structures:

  • "exaggerate + noun" → She exaggerated her achievements.
  • "tend to exaggerate" → He tends to exaggerate when telling stories.

Common Phrases

  • grossly exaggerate – to exaggerate to an extreme degree
  • tend to exaggerate – habitually exaggerate
  • wildly exaggerated claims – claims that are far from reality

Collocations

  • verbs: tend to exaggerate, deliberately exaggerate, grossly exaggerate
  • adjectives: slightly exaggerated, wildly exaggerated
  • nouns: exaggerate the problem, exaggerate the truth, exaggerate the benefits

Examples

  1. He exaggerated the size of the fish he caught.
  2. Don’t exaggerate; it wasn’t that difficult.
  3. The newspaper exaggerated the story to attract readers.
  4. She exaggerated her fear to avoid taking the exam.
  5. The comedian exaggerated his expressions to make people laugh.
  6. It’s easy to exaggerate the importance of small problems.
  7. He tends to exaggerate his role in the project.
  8. The risks have been grossly exaggerated.
  • Overstate
  • Overemphasize
  • Embellish
  • Magnify
  • Dramatize