How is hyperbole pronounced—and why?

This word doesn't behave the way we expect a word that's spelled this way to behave. It begins with the prefix hyper-, which we know in words like hyperlink (and in the adjective hyper itself), but instead of having the accent, or emphasis, on the first syllable—HYE-per-link—it has the accent on the second syllable: hye-PER-buh-lee. And then there's that bole. It should sound just like the word bowl, right? Nope. Instead it's two syllables: \buh-lee\ .

The word comes to English directly from Latin, but the Latin word is from a Greek word that has one crucial visual difference. It has a line, called a macron, over the final e: hyperbolē. The macron tells us that the vowel is pronounced like \ee\ .

The fact that hyperbole is pronounced in a way counter to the usual workings of English pronunciation gives a hint as to the word's history in the language. Although these days you might encounter hyperbole in a magazine at the doctor's office, the word's first use was technical. It's from the field of rhetoric, which makes it at home with terms like metaphor, trope, and litotes. And speaking of litotes (pronounced \LYE-tuh-teez\ ), that term is an approximate antonym of hyperbole. It refers to understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negation of the contrary, as in "not a bad idea" or "not unpleasant."

Examples of hyperbole in a Sentence

Four decades later we're all blabbermouths, adrift on a sea of hyperbole, shouting to be heard. — Steve Rushin, Sports Illustrated, 1 Apr. 2002 … balanced on the razor edge of anachronism, creating a rich stew of accepted and invented history, anecdote, myth and hyperbole. — T. Coraghessan Boyle, New York Times Book Review, 18 May 1997 Even if we discount the hyperbole evident in such accounts, they were far from inventions. — Lawrence W. Levine, The Unpredictable Past, 1993 “enough food to feed a whole army” is a common example of hyperbole

Recent Examples on the Web Contrary to local hyperbole, the new buyers in San Antonio aren’t all from the West Coast. — Bruce Selcraig, San Antonio Express-News, 17 Nov. 2021 Horsemen are decidedly prone less to hyperbole than to understatement. — San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Nov. 2021 In Australian business circles, Dr. Forrest is known for being a salesman of the impossible, sometimes prone to hyperbole but often proving the skeptics wrong. — New York Times, 16 Oct. 2021 Patriots special teams ace Matthew Slater, who is not prone to hyperbole, compared Harris to former Saint/Eagle/Charger Darren Sproles, the only player in NFL history to exceed 2,200 all-purpose yards in four consecutive seasons. — BostonGlobe.com, 24 Sep. 2021 That's not hyperbole either, as the 31-year-old bested Caleb Plant at MGM Grand Garden arena, taking home the IBF title. — Mark Gray, PEOPLE.com, 7 Nov. 2021 Say it once, not 12 times, and watch for hyperbole. — Neil Senturia, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Oct. 2021 Former president Donald Trump also engaged in hyperbole. — Washington Post, 29 Aug. 2021 The president of the United States, a man long known for hyperbole, doth protest too much. — The Editors, National Review, 15 July 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hyperbole.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.