exaggerate
/ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/
"exaggerate" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“exaggerate” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #22,664 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #22,664
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To overstate, to describe more than the fact.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | exaggerate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #22,664 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “exaggerate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for exaggerate is 10 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #22,664 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To overstate, to describe more than the fact.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for exaggerate, with forms such as "eaxggerate", "exagegrate", and "exagerate". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "exaggerated", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 u… The correct English form is exaggerate, spelled E-X-A-G-G-E-R-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1To overstate, to describe more than the fact.
Etymology
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”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eaxggerate,exagegrate,exagerate,exaggearte,exaggeraet,exaggeratte,exaggerrate,exaggertae,exaggreate,exgagerate,exxaggerate,xeaggerate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of exaggerate - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “exaggerate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-X-A-G-G-E-R-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “exaggerated” - see the side-by-side comparison. exaggerate vs exaggerated
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.