noun ·7 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An explanation that excludes important information for the sake of brevity, or of making the explanation or presentation easy to understand. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   an act of excessive simplification; the act of making something seem simpler than it really is wordnet
3. 3
   The process of making such an explanation. countable, uncountable
4. 4
   an explanation that simplifies too far to the point of misrepresentation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

callownesscoarsenessconceptual cruditycrudenesscruditygreenness

Example

More examples

"That's a bit of an oversimplification."

Etymology

From over- + simplification.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.