exaggerate
ex·ag·ger·ate/ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/verb, adjective
exaggerate is spelled E-X-A-G-G-E-R-A-T-E, 4 syllables: ex·ag·ger·ate. The wrong spelling people search most is exagerrate: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 43 of all searches for the word. Exaggerate is a verb meaning “To overstate, to describe more than the fact”.
How many letters and syllables are in exaggerate?
| Letters | 10: E-X-A-G-G-E-R-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: ex·ag·ger·ate |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words; the 22,651st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, exagerrate, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell exaggerate?
Exaggerate is spelled E-X-A-G-G-E-R-A-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 43 of the searches for exaggerate in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is exaggerate?
Exaggerate appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce exaggerate?
- /ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/
- /ɛk(s)ˈzæ(ɡ)d͡ʒɜː(ɹ).ɹeɪt/
- /ɪɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/
Exaggerate has 4 syllables, split ex·ag·ger·ate in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-exaggerate.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of exaggerate
- exaggerates present, singular, he/she/it
- exaggerating participle, present
- exaggerated participle, past
- more exaggerate comparative
- most exaggerate superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does exaggerate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To overstate, to describe more than the fact.
I've told you a billion times not to exaggerate!
adjective
- 1
Exaggerative; overblown.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Exaggerate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to overstate, to describe more than is fact:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | exagérer, outrer |
| German | aufpeitschen, übertreiben |
| Portuguese | exagerar |
| Spanish | exagerar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does exaggerate come from?
Borrowed from Latin exaggerātus, perfect passive participle of exaggerō (“to heap up, increase, enlarge, magnify, amplify, exaggerate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ex- (“out, up”) + aggerō, aggerāre (“to heap up”), from agger (“a pile, heap, mound, dike, mole, pier, etc.”), from aggerō, aggerere (“to bear, carry to (some place), bring together”), from ad- (“to, toward”) + gerō (“to carry”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).