Word of the Day

: July 25, 2009

hyperbole

noun hye-PER-buh-lee

What It Means

: extravagant exaggeration

hyperbole in Context

The food in the restaurant was quite good, but it couldn't live up to the hyperbole that had been used to describe it in the advertisement.

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.