What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Exaggerate vs Exasperate - What's the difference?

exaggerate | exasperate | Related terms |

Exasperate is a synonym of exaggerate.



As verbs the difference between exaggerate and exasperate

is that exaggerate is to overstate, to describe more than is fact while exasperate is to frustrate, vex, provoke, or annoy; to make angry.

As an adjective exasperate is

exasperated; embittered.

exaggerate

English

Verb

(exaggerat)
  • To overstate, to describe more than is fact.
    • I've told you a billion times not to exaggerate !
    He said he'd slept with hundreds of girls, but I know he's exaggerating . The real number is about ten.

    Synonyms

    * overexaggerate * overstate

    Antonyms

    * (overstate) downplay, understate

    Derived terms

    * exaggeratedly * exaggeratingly * exaggerative * exaggeratively * exaggerativeness * exaggerator * exaggeratory

    Related terms

    * exaggeration

    External links

    * * * English transitive verbs ----

    exasperate

    English

    Verb

    (exasperat)
  • To frustrate, vex, provoke, or annoy; to make angry.
  • * , Macbeth , act 3, sc. 6:
    • this report
    Hath so exasperate the king that he
    Prepares for some attempt of war.
  • * 1851 , , Moby Dick , ch. 3:
    • The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.
  • * 1853 , , Bleak House , ch. 11:
    • Beadle goes into various shops and parlours, examining the inhabitants; always shutting the door first, and by exclusion, delay, and general idiotcy, exasperating the public.
  • * 1987 , " Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino," Time , 5 Jan:
    • [S]he exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.
  • * 2007 , " Loyal Mail," Times Online (UK), 4 June (retrieved 7 Oct 2010):
    • News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Exasperated; embittered.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • * Elizabeth Browning
    • Like swallows which the exasperate dying year / Sets spinning.

    See also

    * exacerbate ----