underspeak
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To speak with understatement and/or modesty.
verb
To speak without sufficient emphasis or volume.
verb
To speak at the same time as and more quietly than another.
Example Sentences
- "Dentists often underspeak and therefore underrate dental conditions. Patients interpret these words to mean there is no problem, only to be surprised later when they learn treatment will be required."
- "He underspoke them. A chanteuse is supposed to “sell” the song. Andy, like Blossom, stinted the standard, gave it less, in order to give (secretly) more."
- "I do beg you to underspeak about the spread or work of I.C.L."
- "By a remarkable analysis of what he called Churchill's "peculiar gift of overwriting and underspeaking," Burton also managed to leave us — as after one of Sir Winston's own speeches — with a feeling of love and of thanks for the privilege of living in the same age with Churchill."
- "Ronald Hall, in “Mishearing, Misreading, and the Language of Listening.” focusses on the way Austen's characters underspeak and overhear or overspeak and underhear, causing a comedy of misunderstanding that ultimately resolves itself throuhg the attainment of proper modes of listening."
- "A spokesperson should say just enough to get his or her talking points across effectively—and no more. There is a fine line between overspeaking and underspeaking; planning and practice help the spokesperson determine that line"