Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In rhetoric, an obvious exaggeration; an extravagant statement or assertion not intended to be understood literally.
- n. Synonyms See exaggeration.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable Extreme exaggeration or overstatement; especially as a literary or rhetorical device.
- n. uncountable Deliberate exaggeration.
- n. countable An instance or example of this technique.
- n. countable, obsolete A hyperbola.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Rhet.) A figure of speech in which the expression is an evident exaggeration of the meaning intended to be conveyed, or by which things are represented as much greater or less, better or worse, than they really are; a statement exaggerated fancifully, through excitement, or for effect.
WordNet 3.0
- n. extravagant exaggeration
Etymologies
- From Latin hyperbole, from Ancient Greek ὑπερβολή (huperbolē, "excess, exaggeration"), from ὑπέρ (huper, "above") + βάλλω (ballō, "I throw"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin hyperbolē, from Greek huperbolē, excess, from huperballein, to exceed : huper, beyond; see hyper- + ballein, to throw; see gwelə- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But if his hyperbole is a little unfair, it's not foolish; it would be far more foolish to underestimate the import of the sublime, the degree to which the fame of those rhapsodes rests on how responsive people are to that aesthetic.”
“It appears that you are looking past what you call hyperbole only to replace it with your own hyperbole by reading too much into this situation.”
“Responding in kind to exaggeration or hyperbole is neither “appropriate” nor effective.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Never a Good Way to Start Your Argument
“His hyperbole is intended to prevent informed debate in the fear that people will stop their partisan bickering long enough to actually see that his bill is lousy.”
“Because you chose to engage in hyperbole, and use the word “dwarfed”, you are now in an indefensible position, and you know it.”
“Aside from the fact that your hyperbole is laughable, I believe it is you and Dawkins who have missed the mark on this.”
“Your hyperbole is off the wall. 33% of Americans oppose the death penalty for murder, as do 40% of Democrats, but only 20% GOP per Galliup Poll in 2007.”
“I guess hyperbole is only acceptable from the Left.”
“More hyperbole from the talker - how about those 5,000,000 new jobs you promised - Don't talk to us in generalities, or hyperbole, or abstracts – just the facts man, just the facts. where are the jobs? when are our retirment savings accounts gonna get back to where they were?”
“My hope is that as the Republicans continue to speak only in hyperbole, the public will begin to doubt them.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hyperbole’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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The Universal Calculator
Obviates the need for other devices or calculations--it will have a button for everything, and it will solve everything.
qwerty keyboard, shift key, control, home, end, pause, log, sin, space, enter, plus, numb and 241 more...
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phrontistery - h
from phrontistery.info
hysteresis, hyrax, hyoid, hymnody, hymnal, hylicism, hydric, hyalopterous, hyaloid, hyalography, hyaline, hyacinthine and 568 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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GRE Study guide
Going through the Magoosh website, words I pulled from the verbal section. 2012.
magnanimous, correlate, anglicized, simulacrum, tantamount, obsequiousness, subterfuge, vehement, vociferous, benign, concomitant, veracity and 83 more...
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Vocabulary
shibboleth, verboten, jejune, ostensible, multifarious, quintessence, purportedly, tangential, vacillate, quagmire, wanton, onerous and 74 more...
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LIT - stylistic schemes & rhetorical ...
polyptoton, polysyndeton, aureation, pleonasm, anacoluthon, anadiplosis, anaphora, anastrophe, antistrophe, antithesis, aporia, aposiopesis and 34 more...
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Garbiage
word trash
parapluie, brobdingnagian, plié, segue, laconic, pastoral, phthisis, belly, synecdoche, apotheosis, sepulchral, mollification and 40 more...
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Vocab_TC60Q_txtbook
most vocab in the textbook Page till end chapter 2.
moribund, unflagging, defunct, sated, inveigling, opining, needling, fulminating, lauding, vassals, serfs, minions and 86 more...
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Terms for AP Lit
This list is designed to be a reference for my AP Lit. students
metonymy, synecdoche, metaphor, simile, litotes, satire, irony, sarcasm, invective, bathos, broadside, characterization and 28 more...
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Need to Know!
elicit, educe, refute, cogency, churlish, martinet, veritable, polyglot, dissemble, histrionics, prevarication, verbiage and 166 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hyperbole.
dailyword This word was used in a Buffy episode when a girl's hands caught fire. Jul 4, 2012
Louises Hyperbole is a writing vice, but I stand by the claim that I gave Drew...quite literally the fright of his life. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan. Mar 18, 2012
bilby I'm sure she'll negosiate a way out. Apr 7, 2011
kewpid Australia's Prime Minister has come under attack for mispronouncing hyperbole. Apr 7, 2011
fbharjo hy (su) perbole Jun 22, 2010
czarina ADHD superbowl..? Aug 10, 2009
ezzackly I prefer using this word in its adverb form. It sounds so fancy.
Hyperbolically, I told him I would rather die then go out with him. May 16, 2009
bilby Best word ever. Apr 24, 2009
BrainyBabe Now he tasted the rare and godlike joys of the man who sees his flights of hyperbole come true. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931. Dec 23, 2008
uselessness This is, hands down, the absolute greatest word in the entire history of language, an unparalleled masterpiece of phonemic perfection, harbinger of the futility of all other words. Would I lie? If English were a nation-state, hyperbole would be king, nay, emperor, nay, supreme benevolent dictator of the universe.
And overthrowing it, friend, is nowhere near even the slightest glimpse of possibility. Jan 27, 2007
fbharjo I overthrow hyperbole - what is hypobole - undershoot?????? Jan 27, 2007
legios I like to "spew vitriolic hyperbole" while intoxicated. Usually of a misantropic inclination... Dec 26, 2006