Hyperbole
Pronounced hy-PER-buh-lee.
Hyperbole: Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect, not meant literally.
Hyperbole works because both writer and reader know it is false; the size of the exaggeration measures the size of the feeling.
Hyperbole examples
"I've told you a million times."
— common usage
"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."
— common idiom
"I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers / Could not with all their quantity of love / Make up my sum."
— Hamlet, Shakespeare
"The suitcase weighed roughly as much as a small moon."
— original example
Spot the Hyperbole
Score: 0/0Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect, not meant literally.
"I've told you a million times."
Which work is this from?
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Hyperbole: common questions
What is hyperbole in literature?
Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect, not meant literally. Hyperbole works because both writer and reader know it is false; the size of the exaggeration measures the size of the feeling.
What is an example of hyperbole?
A classic example is "I've told you a million times." (common usage).
What is the opposite of hyperbole?
Litotes (or understatement generally): where hyperbole inflates ('I've told you a million times'), litotes deliberately shrinks ('not bad' for excellent). Both say something other than the literal truth to signal how the speaker actually feels.
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