🔬 Making larger 🔊 Exaggeration 🖼️ Enlarged photo

magnification

1 5.9

Making something seem more important than it really is

noun
/ˌmæɡnɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

: exageración

The distinguishing factors are a level of interest totally out of proportion to the real importance of the subject, some individuals building personal careers from the pursuit and magnification of the issue, and the replacement of reasoned debate with witch hunts and hysteria.

Examples

So this magnification of Labor is very impressive.
What I'm trying to argue is that we are seeing a magnification of extreme events accelerating and overlapping.
Another aspect of the research dimension of the field also deserves magnification.

Academic text (2005)
This description may reflect in part a child's magnification of his father's significance, but it is not too far off the mark.

Academic text (2006)
Because excommunication is meant to be a family affair, creating hardship for all connected with the one shunned, our family has suffered indescribable magnification of already deeply disturbing persecution at the hands of church officials and members alike.

Blog text (28)
The news often involves a magnification of minor issues to attract viewers.
Many historians caution against the magnification of certain events in textbooks.
She noticed the magnification of his achievements in the company newsletter.

Synonyms

exaggeration

vsmagnification

52 3.0

A statement that makes something seem bigger, better, or worse than it is

is the general act of making things seem more important

overstatement

vsmagnification

13 4.4

Saying something is more important or serious than it really is

is broader, covering any way of making things seem important

overemphasis

vsmagnification

1 6.1

Too much attention to one thing makes people ignore other things

is about making things seem more important rather than only emphasizing them

Antonyms

understatement

70 5.6

Saying something in a way that makes it seem less important, serious, or bad than it really is

minimization

5 5.5

The act of making something as small as possible

How Exaggerated

overstatement

13 4.4

magnification

1 5.9

embellishment

15 5.8

Surface Forms

magnification singular

magnifications plural

Morphology

magnification = magnify (semi-transparent) = magnify + ation

This sense is a figurative extension from 'make larger' to 'exaggerate', so learners who only know the concrete sense may not immediately infer 'exaggeration'.

Etymology

Magnification comes from the Latin word magnus 'large' and a part that means 'to make', seen in the English word magnify. So it literally means 'making something larger', which is why it can mean exaggerating or making a small problem seem more important.