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I can downplay something.

Can I thus "upplay" a thing or not? What do you think?

Anixx
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3 Answers3

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No, unfortunately 'upplay' is not a word. If you want to say the opposite of 'downplay' you can always use words like: magnify, overstate, exaggerate, amplify.

However you can say "play up" to mean: to emphasize something.

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    Just like you `lower the ante`, and not `down the ante`, vs `up the ante` – Hanky Panky Sep 18 '14 at 04:34
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    Can't you `raise the ante`? – ADTC Sep 18 '14 at 05:48
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    I'd say "play up" is the direct antonym of "downplay." For some reason, the word order just gets reversed. – trlkly Sep 18 '14 at 15:10
  • Notably, you can't "play down" something - it's always "downplay". [At least in modern English](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=play&allowed_in_frame=0). – Bobson Sep 18 '14 at 15:10
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    @Bobson You can "play down" something in Modern English. People play down the importance of issues all the time. E.g., [Google Scholar results](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22play+down+the%22). You can try news results, too, but that gets into "headline-ese", which isn't always natural modern English. – Joshua Taylor Sep 18 '14 at 15:59
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    Careful with those synonyms - some of those play up ( :) ) the fact that the attention given is undue (overstate, exaggerate), while the others don't. – Maciej Stachowski Sep 18 '14 at 16:18
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    @Bobson Check the [n-gram for *play down* vs. *downplay*](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=play+down%2Cdownplay&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cplay%20down%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cdownplay%3B%2Cc0). *downplay* only became more popular than *play down* in the mid-1980's. – Caleb Sep 18 '14 at 17:00
  • @JoshuaTaylor - Interesting. It sounds "wrong" to me, but clearly it does get used. I think Caleb's n-gram explains it best, though - I'm showing my age. – Bobson Sep 18 '14 at 17:02
  • @Caleb And for UK English, not until 2000, which suggests an American origin for "downplay". – Jules Sep 18 '14 at 23:38
  • I think this answer would be dramatically improved by differentiating between words that are the direct opposite of downplay - like emphasize and amplify - and words that bring something extra - criticism. You use these words in a different context than downplay and its opposite - emphasize. An English learner could get into trouble if they don't understand this subtlety. – GreenAsJade Sep 19 '14 at 02:36
  • I wouldn't have recognised "play up" to make something more important. As @MaciejStachowski has hinted, "play up" means to misbehave in some regions, and has negative connotations - strange that TFD doesn't show this? – Chris Burgess Apr 24 '15 at 12:22
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You wouldn't "up-play", but you could overplay something.

Maciej Stachowski
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  • Overplay is in no way the opposite of down play, though. If you said over play when you meant emphasize, you might embarrass yourself: one is a criticism, the other is not. – GreenAsJade Sep 19 '14 at 02:34
  • @GreenAsJade Obviously, but so is "downplay" in a way - it points out that something was made less important than it really is. A better opposite for "emphasise" would be "disregard", I think - those two don't imply the wrong judgement. – Maciej Stachowski Sep 19 '14 at 10:42
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talk up provides an antonym to downplay - it matches the informal/colloquial usage.

He talked up his work experience to secure the position.

Chris Burgess
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    This is a good answer! But it would be nice to provide some dictionary citations so the asker can read more, or to give some usage examples. What makes you suggest this phrase in particular? – Tiercelet Sep 19 '14 at 04:10
  • Thanks, done! I'm an English speaker of the en_NZ variant - this may be relevant since it feels fairly colloquial. – Chris Burgess Sep 20 '14 at 07:49