✍🏽ap english language review

Understatement or meiosis

Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated August 2025
Verified for the 2027 exam
Verified for the 2027 examWritten by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated August 2025

Definition

A rhetorical device that deliberately represents something as less important, serious, or significant than it actually is, often for ironic or humorous effect.

AP course connection

Topic 9.2: 9.2 Crafting an argument through stylistic choices like word choice and description

Unit 9

"Understatement or meiosis" also found in: