understate

verb

we have been guilty of understating the size of the problem:

play down, downplay, make light of, underrate, rate too low, not do justice to, do an injustice to, underplay, de-emphasize, underemphasize, trivialize, minimize, diminish, downgrade, reduce, lessen, brush aside, gloss over, shrug off;

informal soft-pedal, sell short;

rare misprize, minify.

▷antonyms overstate, exaggerate, emphasize.