hyperbole
[hahy-pur-buh-lee]
- obvious and intentional exaggeration.
- an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”
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Compare litotes.
Origin of hyperbole
1520–30; < Greek hyperbolḗ excess, exaggeration, throwing beyond, equivalent to hyper- hyper- + bolḗ throw
Synonyms
See more synonyms for hyperbole on Thesaurus.com2. overstatement.
Antonyms
2. understatement.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hyperbole
Contemporary Examples
Exaggeration and hyperbole are constant campaign companions, as useful and expected as hammers and saws on a construction site.
Pardon the hyperbole, but there has never been a more aptly titled Good Wife episode than “Hitting the Fan.”
In The Good Wife’s Explosive ‘Hitting the Fan,’ That’s Exactly What HappensChancellor Agard
October 28, 2013
Film festival reviews are, as is their wont, often prone to hyperbole.
The Stars of ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ On the Riveting Lesbian Love StoryMarlow Stern
September 1, 2013
Finke, who regularly breaks showbiz news, is the master of hyperbole.
So ignore the hyperbole of the candidates and the hysteria of the partisan commentators.
Historical Examples
We have here an example of this adventurer's style of exaggeration and hyperbole.
Aztec LandMaturin M. Ballou
Hyperbole means by definition that which is untrue and incredible.
Epic and RomanceW. P. Ker
I understand now the Western hyperbole of “hitting the high places.”
The Mutiny of the ElsinoreJack London
The figure of a quiet slumber is no hyperbole, but a sober verity.
Memories of BethanyJohn Ross Macduff
The hyperbole is their principal forte, but what is lying but imagination?
Diary in America, Series TwoFrederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)
hyperbole
- a deliberate exaggeration used for effecthe embraced her a thousand times
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Word Origin
C16: from Greek: from hyper- + bolē a throw, from ballein to throw
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for hyperbole
n.
early 15c., from Latin hyperbole, from Greek hyperbole "exaggeration, extravagance," related to hyperballein "to throw over or beyond," from hyper- "beyond" + bole "a throwing, a casting, the stroke of a missile, bolt, beam," from bol-, nominative stem of ballein "to throw" (see ballistics). Rhetorical sense is found in Aristotle and Isocrates.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
hyperbole
[(heye-pur-buh-lee)]
An exaggerated, extravagant expression. It is hyperbole to say, “I'd give my whole fortune for a bowl of bean soup.”
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.