Stylistic Devices: Understatement

Stylistic Devices: Understatement

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What is Understatement?

Understatement is a figure of speech used by writers or speakers to deliberately make a situation seem less important or serious than it really is.

Examples of understatement

• “It stings a bit” – a soldier describing the pain he feels after he has just lost his leg.
• “It has rained a little more than the average” – describing a flooded area.
• “It was an interesting experience.” – describing a difficult unbearable experience.
• “The grave’s a fine and private place,
  But none, I think, do there embrace.”
  (Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”)

Understatement Figure of Speech

List of Figures of Speech in the English Language – Literary Devices
Accumulation	Climax	Metalepsis
Adjunction	Dysphemism	Metaphor
Adnomination	Ellipsis	Metonymy
Alliteration	Euphemism	Simile
Allusion	Epigram	Synecdoche
Anaphora	Epiphora (or epistrophe)	Tautology
Antanaclasis	Hyperbole	Understatement
Anticlimax	Hypophora	Zeugma and syllepsis
Antiphrasis	Irony
Antithesis	Litotes
Apostrophe	Oxymoron
Assonance	Personification
Cataphora	Puns
Chiasmus	Merism

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