“To the moon and back” expresses vastness or a long way, but it’s also an impossible distance for the average person, raising questions if such a statement is sincere. We infer the intention of the speaker or the statement from what is exaggerated, not the actual meaning of the words. “He has a brain the size of a pea” creates a vivid image most listeners will understand, but not take for fact.Ĭontext is often important for hyperbole. As a rhetorical device or figure of speech, it can become a caricature, and we rarely take the meaning literally. In everyday speech, we use hyperbole to make a powerful impression, to emphasize and evoke feelings. Synonyms for hyperbole are overstatement, exaggeration or over-exaggeration, embellishment, magnification, or auxesis (meaning growth). The word hyperbole is pronounced ‘hi-PUR-bow-lee.’ It came into the English language from the Latin hyperbola, which goes back to the Greek word hyperballein, a composite of hyper for ‘beyond’ and the verb ballein meaning ‘to throw.’ The English adjective we use is ‘hyperbolic.’ It aims to create the most extreme form of a statement: “I died of shame” is already figurative language, and the hyperbole “I was so embarrassed, I died a thousand deaths” seeks to create a superlative of that. The shortest definition for hyperbole is, therefore, overstatement or extravagant exaggeration. As a rhetorical device or figure of speech, hyperbole takes a true statement and intensifies it to the extreme: “How much do you weigh, a ton?”. Hyperbole overstates or exaggerates, for example, circumstances, qualities or effects. Hyperbole examples and their function allow you to use them in your own creative writing to best effect. The following hyperbole definition will help you understand this device and distinguish it from other literary terms. This figure of speech creates emphasis and depending on the context, you can use it for comic or dramatic effect, to create vivid images, or to convey intensity or emotion. Hyperbole uses figurative language to make an overstatement or exaggeration.
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