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Can your main argument “not be overstated enough?” Or should that be understated?. Overstate (verb): Overstate is a verb that means “to describe in an exaggerated way”: “Defendant overstates his claim that no court has ever granted this relief before.” “ Can’t be Overstated ”: This phrase should be reserved for only the most important points, since it means that the point is ...
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BetaAlso note the relationships between "cannot" and "should not" (here using over/underestimated): It cannot be over estimated = No matter how hard you try, you won't overestimate it. It should not be unde restimated = You shouldn't underestimate it, because if you do, you'll be in trouble.
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Beta'Overstate' means basically to make a bigger deal out of something than it is, whereas 'understate' means the opposite. "It's hard to overstate the devastating effect of the nuclear bomb" is correct: you're saying that the damage of a nuclear bomb is so vast that however devastating one could say the nuclear bomb is won't be far over the truth.
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BetaSimilar topic ("cannot/must not underestimate") here A Google search for "hard to understate" (with quote marks) mostly returns examples of misuse. Share. Improve this answer. Follow edited Jun 9, 2019 at 15:14. answered Dec 26, 2018 at 21:18. Michael Harvey ...
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BetaThe phrase “it cannot be understated or overstated” serves as a powerful tool in emphasizing the importance, significance, or impact of a statement or fact. Its dual negation effectively communicates that the matter at hand is of utmost importance and should be fully recognized without downplaying or exaggerating its implications.
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BetaThe meaning of CANNOT BE OVERSTATED is —used to say that something is very large or very great. How to use cannot be overstated in a sentence. —used to say that something is very large or very great… See the full definition. Games; Word of the Day; Grammar; Wordplay; New Slang; Rhymes; Word Finder; Thesaurus; Join ...
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Beta'The importance of this cannot be understated.' means that the importance is very high and should not be underestimated. 'The importance of this cannot be overstated.' means that the importance is significant and cannot be emphasized enough. The choice between 'understated' and 'overstated' depends on the intended emphasis on the importance.
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BetaWallraff's explanation (The Atlantic, v. 293 no. 5, June 2004, p. 154) is completely different. She suggest that phrases like cannot understate are genuinely ambiguous, not just confusing: Cannot understate and cannot overstate are like architectural elements in an M.C. Escher drawing: if you like, you can ...
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BetaDefinition of cannot be overstated —used to say that something is very large or very great The importance of tomorrow's test cannot be overstated. What does Cannot be understated mean? If the former, then “X cannot be understated” means something like “I can't and won't allow it to be stated as of less importance than it actually is.”
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BetaI became intrigued by this modal construction recently, after I berated some undergraduates in my comments on their essay that what they really meant was ‘X cannot be overstated’.However, greater reflection leads to me to believe that, while they were probably wrong, the structure is ambiguous.. It turns on the meaning of ‘cannot’, and whether you take it to mean “must not be allowed ...
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