underplays

verb

present tense third-person singular of underplay
1
as in understates

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Dissimilar Words
2
as in overplays

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for underplays
  1. understates
  2. enacts
  3. downplays
Verb
  • The headline capacity number understates what’s actually happening at the Benito Villamarín.
    — Sam Leveridge, Forbes.com, 6 Aug. 2026
  • But over the last 12 months, inflation has nearly kept pace with hourly wage gains — and that understates the extent of the problem because debt service costs are not included in the consumer price index.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 1 Aug. 2026
Definition of understates
Verb
  • The leader who takes bodyful ownership of their life and enacts disciplined practices to sense its rhythms will not only enjoy greater harmony and wellbeing but bring greater coherence to their work and to their world.
    — Ginny Whitelaw, Forbes.com, 1 Aug. 2026
  • On just one unchanging set, an old-time concert hall designed by Rachel Hauck and made appropriately ominous, a tiny ensemble enacts a whole Greek tragedy of love and sacrifice that goes from the land of the living to the underworld and back.
    — Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 22 July 2026
Definition of enacts
Verb
  • In her role as well as elsewhere, Kalle downplays the explicit homophobia that might have rendered this a more simplistic allegory, making Asla less a figure of interfering jealousy than a woman who simply doesn’t want to be abandoned yet again.
    — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 26 July 2026
  • Miller also downplays concerns about competition with the Jaguar Type 01, highlighting the GT's greater versatility fcompared to Jaguar's more design-focused, less practical offering.
    — James Morris, Forbes.com, 25 July 2026
Definition of downplays
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

underplaying
underplays
underprepared
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Cite this Entry

“Underplays.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/underplays. Accessed 15 Aug. 2026.

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