تخفیف

In rhetoric, litotes (, ), is a figure of speech and form of irony to emphasize a point by stating a negative to affirm a positive. In speech, litotes may depend on intonation and emphasis; for example, the phrase "not bad" can be intonated differently so as to mean either "mediocre" or "excellent". The interpretation of negation may also depend on context, including cultural context. Litotes can be used euphemistically to diminish the harshness of an observation: "He isn't the cleanest person I know" could be used to indicate that someone is a messy person. A form of understatement, litotes