hyperbole

noun hy·per·bo·le \ hī-ˈpər-bə-(ˌ)lē \

Updated on: 21 May 2018

Definition of hyperbole

: extravagant exaggeration (such as "mile-high ice-cream cones")

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hyperbolist

play \hī-ˈpər-bə-list\ noun

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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 of hyperbole from the Web

Today's forecast calls for sustained prolixity with occasional outbreaks of hyperbole.

— john e. mcintyre, baltimoresun.com, "I'm always at the desk," 12 May 2018
Any whiff of Reefer Madness hyperbole is perfectly calibrated to trigger an adolescent's instinctive skepticism for whatever an adult suggests.

— claudia wallis, Scientific American, "What Pot Really Does to the Teen Brain," 1 Dec. 2017
We are supposed to cringe when Chuck and Axe collide and speak to each other like cocksure generals preparing for battle; their swagger and hyperbole are meant to be comical.

— rachel syme, The New Republic, ""Billions" reckons with the inflated egos and muddled ethics of Wall Street.," 24 Apr. 2018
Oh, season of bliss, oh season of plenty, oh time of longing and hyperbole and reckless prose style.

— alice kahn, San Francisco Chronicle, "This spring, call me rebel with a cause, Alice Kahn, 1990," 23 Apr. 2018
The aforementioned, however, is not a use of hyperbole on my part to try and entice you to click on this article.

— SI.com, "World Cup Countdown: 12 Weeks to Go - Italy & West Germany's 'Game of the Century'," 1 Apr. 2018
The Senate should reject Otis’ nomination because his views on criminal justice and sentencing are far out of the mainstream and are driven by hyperbole and fear, rather than evidence and data.

— erica k. zunkel, Fortune, "Commentary: We’ve Made Progress With Criminal Justice Reform. This Trump Pick Could Undo It All," 15 Mar. 2018
The wall, which began as a bit of campaign trail hyperbole, is an act of hostility toward Mexico and a sop to Trump's base.

— robin abcarian, latimes.com, "If Trump really wants to fix our border problems, he should visit the sewage pools, not his silly walls," 13 Mar. 2018
The remark seemed, at the time, like classic Trump hyperbole.

— callum borchers, Washington Post, "The drama behind Trump’s assertion that the National Enquirer deserved a Pulitzer," 16 Apr. 2018

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.

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 was 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."

Did You Know?

In the 5th century B.C. there was a rabble-rousing Athenian, a politician named Hyperbolus, who often made exaggerated promises and claims that whipped people into a frenzy. But even though it sounds appropriate, Hyperbolus' name did not play a role in the development of the modern English word hyperbole. That noun does come to us from Greek (by way of Latin), but from the Greek verb hyperballein, meaning "to exceed," not from the name of the Athenian demagogue.