Post 2

Understatement: The opposite of hyperbole: representing something as much less in important than it actually is. Usually the writer's effect is to create irony-such as when Mark Twain wrote: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Basically an understatement is just somebody saying something that means more than they make it sound. That last sentence was a bit of an understatement. Maybe that last one too. An understatement is like saying, "the superbowl is just a bunch of guys running around in tights trying to land an oddly shaped ball in to little squares on opposite sides of the field." While that may be pretty accurate in a litteral sense, it's an understatement because football means more to a great number of people than that. Not only that, but it's common knowledge that a statement like that is completely absurd.