To exaggerate means to describe something as bigger, better, worse, or more extreme than it really is. When you exaggerate, you stretch the truth to make a story more dramatic or impressive. If you say “I've told you a million times to clean your room,” you're exaggerating: you haven't literally said it a million times, but you're emphasizing how often you've repeated yourself.

People exaggerate for different reasons. Sometimes it's to make a story more entertaining: “The fish I caught was this big!” (spreading your arms wide). Sometimes it's to emphasize a point: “This backpack weighs a ton!” Sometimes people exaggerate without meaning to, just because their memory makes things seem more intense than they were.

Exaggeration can become a problem when it slides into dishonesty. If you exaggerate your role in a group project to take credit you didn't earn, or exaggerate how sick you are to avoid responsibility, you're crossing from harmless emphasis into deception. Exaggeration can also be a noun: “That's an exaggeration” means someone has stretched the truth too far.