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Formation: N + にすぎない; V-plain / い-adj plain + にすぎない; な-adj / N + である + にすぎない; past: にすぎなかった

〜にすぎない says that something is only X and nothing more. The speaker is deliberately playing down its size, importance or significance: it is just a rumour, just an excuse, a mere ten percent. It is a little formal and appears often in essays, news and argument, though it is also used in careful speech. Its closest neighbour is 〜にほかならない, which points the other way: it insists emphatically that something is exactly X. 〜にすぎない shrinks X. Compared with plain だけだ, 〜にすぎない is more formal and more clearly dismissive or modest.

Variants: にすぎず、にすぎなかった、にすぎません、であるにすぎない

Examples

• それは単なる噂にすぎない。
  That's nothing more than a rumour.
• 合格者は受験者のわずか一割にすぎなかった。
  Those who passed were a mere ten percent of the candidates.
• 私は自分の意見を述べたにすぎません。
  I was merely stating my own opinion.

In real texts 0 occurrence(s)

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