understate
Example Sentences
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The plaintiffs accused the board members of instead cherry-picking data to understate operating costs and overstate the financial performance of landlords.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Cash payments help businesses understate turnover to stay below the VAT threshold, while cash wages help them avoid payroll taxes.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
While this approach simplifies planning, it can miss important differences in how inflation actually affects retiree budgets and may understate the real pressure on long-term purchasing power.
From MarketWatch ● May 13, 2026
But if they are broadening into something more persistent, the trimmed mean will understate inflation, possibly by a lot.
From Barron's ● May 11, 2026
Francis saw no reason to understate the power of the helical theory and within several minutes revealed the way Bessel functions gave neat answers.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
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Crude around $100 a barrel understates what businesses are actually paying: Diesel is behaving as though oil were at $200, said Dudley.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
And that understates the savings, because it also would have cut the $9 trillion in net interest the government has to pay on the national debt over that period.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
“This understates the costliness to U.S. households though, because tariffs also allow non-importing firms to raise their prices if they’re competing with imports,” Bivens said.
From Salon ● Apr. 15, 2026
Mr. Vartanian also understates the importance of blockchain technology when he acknowledges that “cryptocurrencies and blockchain products have brought efficiencies and advances to payment systems”—faint praise that undersells what is happening in global finance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026
But then, we venture to point out, that the learned Professor considerably understates the case: seeing that the “vice versâ presumption” is absolutely non-existent.
From The Revision Revised by John William Burgon
But this we must discover for ourselves, for the wall labels of the exhibition—curated by Cindy Kang of the Barnes—are mercifully understated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2026
Aside from his stage work, Mandell appeared in several films, where he played understated characters grounded in his work in the theater of the absurd.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
Enter Reinsve and Stan, an ideal pair of leads capable of providing the understated, baseline emotion that Mungiu requires to pull off an undertaking as tricky as “Fjord.”
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
Some analysts say so-called “quiet luxury” — the understated but expensive styles found on TV shows like “Succession” — is on its way out, as shoppers turn to more ostentatious pieces.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
By authentic Ptolemaic standards, then, the procession of Elizabeth Taylor into Rome in the film Cleopatra was actually a rather understated affair.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
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A U.K. parliamentary inquiry concluded that the government mis-sold loans to students for over a decade by understating their eventual costs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Short seller Muddy Waters Research accused SoFi of understating debt and intentionally diluting shareholders in a March report—claims SoFi called “factually inaccurate and misleading.”
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
U.S. accounting rules for intangible assets have been subject to criticism for potentially understating their true value or sometimes excluding some internally developed assets entirely.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 18, 2026
"If I said it felt like getting hit with a sledgehammer, I'd be understating it," Steutel told BBC Sport, describing the moment he found out about the ban.
From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2025
In a tone that suggested she was understating things greatly, she told Dill that he’d be able to buy a few textbooks with the royalties.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
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