Past tense of understate
regular verb
The past tense of understate is understated. The past participle is also understated.
Forms of understate
| Base form (V1) | understate /ʌndəˈsteɪt/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | understated /ʌndəˈsteɪtɪd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | understated /ʌndəˈsteɪtɪd/ |
| Present participle | understating |
| Third person singular | understates |
Understated in a sentence
- She is the queen of understatement: she understated her critique masterfully.
- Nearby residents don't want any gaudiness in the building's renovation: they want it to be tasteful and understated.From the entry gaudiness
- It’s understated and works for every kind of woman.2020 July 10, Kathleen Beckett, “Hair Today, Jeweled for Tomorrow”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company…. From the entry blow dry
- Jank is the understated secret sauce of game development.2018, Ryan Cooper, The Joy of Jank, Unwinnable. From the entry jank
- Scheinman’s solo on the tune was stately but not remote; she packed many shades of melancholy into a few understated phrases.2007 February 3, Nate Chinen, “Kindred Spirits in Groove”, in New York Times. From the entry ragalike
Meaning of understate
- verb To state (something) with less completeness than needed; to minimise or downplay.
- verb To state (something) with an intentional lack of emphasis, in order to express irony.
- verb To state a quantity that is too low.
Questions about the past tense of understate
- What is the past tense of understate?
- The past tense of understate is understated.
- What is the past participle of understate?
- The past participle of understate is understated.
- Is understate a regular or irregular verb?
- Understate is a regular verb: its past tense adds -d.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: understate (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of understate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/understate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.