exaggerated

1. 1
   adjective

   Described or shown as larger or greater than it really is, or abnormally increased in size or degree.

   The report contained exaggerated claims about the product's benefits.

   Critics dismissed the exaggerated figures as nothing more than political spin.

   Similarinflated, overstated, overblown, hyperbolic, embellished

   Oppositeunderstated, accurate

   Note

   The adjective reaches past inflated claims to anything carried further than the situation needs. In Trains Illustrate in 1961, Cecil J. Allen writes that the High Wycombe curve was shown "most exaggerated respect," with speed held to a minimum of 30 m.p.h. That is caution overdone, not a story overstated. The word grades freely (more exaggerated, most exaggerated), and here most simply means "very."

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of exaggerate.

   The witness exaggerated the danger to make his story sound more dramatic.

   Many newspapers exaggerated the threat during the early days of the panic.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs: the simple past (she exaggerated) and the participle after have or be (it had been exaggerated). After be, the passive shades into the adjective sense, and grading tells them apart. "The figures were exaggerated by the press" names an act and a doer. "The figures were more exaggerated than ever" describes a state, and only the adjective takes more and most.

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