English → Latin
“exaggerate” in Latin
vēritāstruth, truthfulness, verity; the true or real nature, reality, real lifeaugeōto increase, augment, enlarge, spread, expand; to lengthen; to raise, strengthen
The English word exaggerate itself goes back to Latin gerō, through exaggerātus.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
exaggerate
plus dicere, quam patitur veritas (Auct., Herenn., 4, 53, 67): veritatem or fidem veritatis non servare: fidem superjacere augendo (Liv., 10, 30). To exaggerate anything, verbis augere rem, or augere only; in majus extollere rem; supra ferre rem, quam fieri possit (Cic.); rei actae modum excedere (Plin., Ep., 7, 33, extr.); in falsum augere aliquid (Tac., all = to magnify at the expense of truth); in majus celebrare aliquid (Sen., Jug., 73, 5. Liv.); multiplicare verbis (represent many times greater than it is; e.g., copias); rem verbis exasperare (make it worse than it is); aliquid extollere laudando verbis, etc. (Cic.), with nimis or supra modum; amplificare (general term); tollere aliquid altius dicendo (Cic., as one of the uses of amplificandi, De Or., 3, 26, 104): plus facto dicere (Quint., 8, 6, 68). Rumour exaggerates everything, fama omnia in majus extollit: the report was greatly exaggerated, inflatius multo, quam res erat gesta, fama percrebuerat. History ought to exaggerate nothing, non debet historia veritatem egredi (Plin., Ep., 7, 33, 10): to exaggerate one’s own merits, se supra modum extollere (Quint., 11, 1, 16). ☞ Not exaggerare, though Cic. has oratio nimis alta et exaggerata, an exaggerated style, opposed to humilis, abjecta.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for exaggerate?
- The usual Latin words for “exaggerate” are vēritās, augeō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.