CINXE.COM
Hyperbole - Wikipedia
<!DOCTYPE html> <html class="client-nojs vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-night-mode-enabled skin-theme-clientpref-day vector-sticky-header-enabled vector-toc-available" lang="en" dir="ltr"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <title>Hyperbole - Wikipedia</title> <script>(function(){var className="client-js vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-night-mode-enabled skin-theme-clientpref-day vector-sticky-header-enabled vector-toc-available";var cookie=document.cookie.match(/(?:^|; )enwikimwclientpreferences=([^;]+)/);if(cookie){cookie[1].split('%2C').forEach(function(pref){className=className.replace(new RegExp('(^| )'+pref.replace(/-clientpref-\w+$|[^\w-]+/g,'')+'-clientpref-\\w+( |$)'),'$1'+pref+'$2');});}document.documentElement.className=className;}());RLCONF={"wgBreakFrames":false,"wgSeparatorTransformTable":["",""],"wgDigitTransformTable":["",""],"wgDefaultDateFormat":"dmy", "wgMonthNames":["","January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"],"wgRequestId":"40f19ed7-c48b-4091-8180-bdce53e2a1d3","wgCanonicalNamespace":"","wgCanonicalSpecialPageName":false,"wgNamespaceNumber":0,"wgPageName":"Hyperbole","wgTitle":"Hyperbole","wgCurRevisionId":1274753420,"wgRevisionId":1274753420,"wgArticleId":184433,"wgIsArticle":true,"wgIsRedirect":false,"wgAction":"view","wgUserName":null,"wgUserGroups":["*"],"wgCategories":["Pages using the Phonos extension","Articles with short description","Short description is different from Wikidata","Pages including recorded pronunciations","Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text","All articles with unsourced statements","Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020","Rhetorical techniques","Tall tales"],"wgPageViewLanguage":"en","wgPageContentLanguage":"en","wgPageContentModel":"wikitext","wgRelevantPageName":"Hyperbole","wgRelevantArticleId": 184433,"wgIsProbablyEditable":true,"wgRelevantPageIsProbablyEditable":true,"wgRestrictionEdit":[],"wgRestrictionMove":[],"wgNoticeProject":"wikipedia","wgCiteReferencePreviewsActive":false,"wgFlaggedRevsParams":{"tags":{"status":{"levels":1}}},"wgMediaViewerOnClick":true,"wgMediaViewerEnabledByDefault":true,"wgPopupsFlags":0,"wgVisualEditor":{"pageLanguageCode":"en","pageLanguageDir":"ltr","pageVariantFallbacks":"en"},"wgMFDisplayWikibaseDescriptions":{"search":true,"watchlist":true,"tagline":false,"nearby":true},"wgWMESchemaEditAttemptStepOversample":false,"wgWMEPageLength":8000,"wgEditSubmitButtonLabelPublish":true,"wgULSPosition":"interlanguage","wgULSisCompactLinksEnabled":false,"wgVector2022LanguageInHeader":true,"wgULSisLanguageSelectorEmpty":false,"wgWikibaseItemId":"Q181036","wgCheckUserClientHintsHeadersJsApi":["brands","architecture","bitness","fullVersionList","mobile","model","platform","platformVersion"],"GEHomepageSuggestedEditsEnableTopics":true, "wgGETopicsMatchModeEnabled":false,"wgGEStructuredTaskRejectionReasonTextInputEnabled":false,"wgGELevelingUpEnabledForUser":false};RLSTATE={"ext.globalCssJs.user.styles":"ready","site.styles":"ready","user.styles":"ready","ext.globalCssJs.user":"ready","user":"ready","user.options":"loading","ext.phonos.styles":"ready","ext.phonos.icons":"ready","ext.cite.styles":"ready","skins.vector.search.codex.styles":"ready","skins.vector.styles":"ready","skins.vector.icons":"ready","jquery.makeCollapsible.styles":"ready","ext.wikimediamessages.styles":"ready","ext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.noscript":"ready","ext.uls.interlanguage":"ready","wikibase.client.init":"ready","ext.wikimediaBadges":"ready"};RLPAGEMODULES=["ext.phonos.init","ext.cite.ux-enhancements","site","mediawiki.page.ready","jquery.makeCollapsible","mediawiki.toc","skins.vector.js","ext.centralNotice.geoIP","ext.centralNotice.startUp","ext.gadget.ReferenceTooltips","ext.gadget.switcher","ext.urlShortener.toolbar", "ext.centralauth.centralautologin","mmv.bootstrap","ext.popups","ext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.init","ext.visualEditor.targetLoader","ext.echo.centralauth","ext.eventLogging","ext.wikimediaEvents","ext.navigationTiming","ext.uls.interface","ext.cx.eventlogging.campaigns","ext.cx.uls.quick.actions","wikibase.client.vector-2022","ext.checkUser.clientHints","ext.growthExperiments.SuggestedEditSession"];</script> <script>(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.loader.impl(function(){return["user.options@12s5i",function($,jQuery,require,module){mw.user.tokens.set({"patrolToken":"+\\","watchToken":"+\\","csrfToken":"+\\"}); }];});});</script> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=ext.cite.styles%7Cext.phonos.icons%2Cstyles%7Cext.uls.interlanguage%7Cext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.noscript%7Cext.wikimediaBadges%7Cext.wikimediamessages.styles%7Cjquery.makeCollapsible.styles%7Cskins.vector.icons%2Cstyles%7Cskins.vector.search.codex.styles%7Cwikibase.client.init&only=styles&skin=vector-2022"> <script async="" src="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=startup&only=scripts&raw=1&skin=vector-2022"></script> <meta name="ResourceLoaderDynamicStyles" content=""> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=site.styles&only=styles&skin=vector-2022"> <meta name="generator" content="MediaWiki 1.44.0-wmf.15"> <meta name="referrer" content="origin"> <meta name="referrer" content="origin-when-cross-origin"> <meta name="robots" content="max-image-preview:standard"> <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=1120"> <meta property="og:title" content="Hyperbole - Wikipedia"> <meta property="og:type" content="website"> <link rel="preconnect" href="//upload.wikimedia.org"> <link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)" href="//en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/x-wiki" title="Edit this page" href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png"> <link rel="icon" href="/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico"> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="/w/rest.php/v1/search" title="Wikipedia (en)"> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" href="//en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=rsd"> <link rel="canonical" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole"> <link rel="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Wikipedia Atom feed" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&feed=atom"> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//meta.wikimedia.org" /> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="login.wikimedia.org"> </head> <body class="skin--responsive skin-vector skin-vector-search-vue mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject mw-editable page-Hyperbole rootpage-Hyperbole skin-vector-2022 action-view"><a class="mw-jump-link" href="#bodyContent">Jump to content</a> <div class="vector-header-container"> <header class="vector-header mw-header"> <div class="vector-header-start"> <nav class="vector-main-menu-landmark" aria-label="Site"> <div id="vector-main-menu-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-main-menu-dropdown vector-button-flush-left vector-button-flush-right" title="Main menu" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-main-menu-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-main-menu-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Main menu" > <label id="vector-main-menu-dropdown-label" for="vector-main-menu-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-menu mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-menu"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Main menu</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-main-menu-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> <div id="vector-main-menu" class="vector-main-menu vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-main-menu-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-unpinned" data-feature-name="main-menu-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-main-menu" data-pinned-container-id="vector-main-menu-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-main-menu-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Main menu</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-main-menu.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-main-menu.unpin">hide</button> </div> <div id="p-navigation" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-navigation" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Navigation </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="n-mainpage-description" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Main_Page" title="Visit the main page [z]" accesskey="z"><span>Main page</span></a></li><li id="n-contents" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents" title="Guides to browsing Wikipedia"><span>Contents</span></a></li><li id="n-currentevents" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Portal:Current_events" title="Articles related to current events"><span>Current events</span></a></li><li id="n-randompage" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:Random" title="Visit a randomly selected article [x]" accesskey="x"><span>Random article</span></a></li><li id="n-aboutsite" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:About" title="Learn about Wikipedia and how it works"><span>About Wikipedia</span></a></li><li id="n-contactpage" class="mw-list-item"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contact_us" title="How to contact Wikipedia"><span>Contact us</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-interaction" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-interaction" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Contribute </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="n-help" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Help:Contents" title="Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia"><span>Help</span></a></li><li id="n-introduction" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Help:Introduction" title="Learn how to edit Wikipedia"><span>Learn to edit</span></a></li><li id="n-portal" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_portal" title="The hub for editors"><span>Community portal</span></a></li><li id="n-recentchanges" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChanges" title="A list of recent changes to Wikipedia [r]" accesskey="r"><span>Recent changes</span></a></li><li id="n-upload" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:File_upload_wizard" title="Add images or other media for use on Wikipedia"><span>Upload file</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <a href="/wiki/Main_Page" class="mw-logo"> <img class="mw-logo-icon" src="/static/images/icons/wikipedia.png" alt="" aria-hidden="true" height="50" width="50"> <span class="mw-logo-container skin-invert"> <img class="mw-logo-wordmark" alt="Wikipedia" src="/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-wordmark-en.svg" style="width: 7.5em; height: 1.125em;"> <img class="mw-logo-tagline" alt="The Free Encyclopedia" src="/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-tagline-en.svg" width="117" height="13" style="width: 7.3125em; height: 0.8125em;"> </span> </a> </div> <div class="vector-header-end"> <div id="p-search" role="search" class="vector-search-box-vue vector-search-box-collapses vector-search-box-show-thumbnail vector-search-box-auto-expand-width vector-search-box"> <a href="/wiki/Special:Search" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only search-toggle" title="Search Wikipedia [f]" accesskey="f"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-search mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-search"></span> <span>Search</span> </a> <div class="vector-typeahead-search-container"> <div class="cdx-typeahead-search cdx-typeahead-search--show-thumbnail cdx-typeahead-search--auto-expand-width"> <form action="/w/index.php" id="searchform" class="cdx-search-input cdx-search-input--has-end-button"> <div id="simpleSearch" class="cdx-search-input__input-wrapper" data-search-loc="header-moved"> <div class="cdx-text-input cdx-text-input--has-start-icon"> <input class="cdx-text-input__input" type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search Wikipedia" aria-label="Search Wikipedia" autocapitalize="sentences" title="Search Wikipedia [f]" accesskey="f" id="searchInput" > <span class="cdx-text-input__icon cdx-text-input__start-icon"></span> </div> <input type="hidden" name="title" value="Special:Search"> </div> <button class="cdx-button cdx-search-input__end-button">Search</button> </form> </div> </div> </div> <nav class="vector-user-links vector-user-links-wide" aria-label="Personal tools"> <div class="vector-user-links-main"> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-preferences" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-userpage" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <nav class="vector-appearance-landmark" aria-label="Appearance"> <div id="vector-appearance-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown " title="Change the appearance of the page's font size, width, and color" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-appearance-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-appearance-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Appearance" > <label id="vector-appearance-dropdown-label" for="vector-appearance-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-appearance mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-appearance"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Appearance</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-appearance-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-notifications" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-overflow" class="vector-menu mw-portlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-sitesupport-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="https://donate.wikimedia.org/?wmf_source=donate&wmf_medium=sidebar&wmf_campaign=en.wikipedia.org&uselang=en" class=""><span>Donate</span></a> </li> <li id="pt-createaccount-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount&returnto=Hyperbole" title="You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory" class=""><span>Create account</span></a> </li> <li id="pt-login-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=Hyperbole" title="You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [o]" accesskey="o" class=""><span>Log in</span></a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div id="vector-user-links-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-user-menu vector-button-flush-right vector-user-menu-logged-out" title="Log in and more options" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-user-links-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-user-links-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Personal tools" > <label id="vector-user-links-dropdown-label" for="vector-user-links-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-ellipsis mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-ellipsis"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Personal tools</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="p-personal" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-personal user-links-collapsible-item" title="User menu" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-sitesupport" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="https://donate.wikimedia.org/?wmf_source=donate&wmf_medium=sidebar&wmf_campaign=en.wikipedia.org&uselang=en"><span>Donate</span></a></li><li id="pt-createaccount" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount&returnto=Hyperbole" title="You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-userAdd mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-userAdd"></span> <span>Create account</span></a></li><li id="pt-login" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=Hyperbole" title="You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [o]" accesskey="o"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-logIn mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-logIn"></span> <span>Log in</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-user-menu-anon-editor" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-user-menu-anon-editor" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Pages for logged out editors <a href="/wiki/Help:Introduction" aria-label="Learn more about editing"><span>learn more</span></a> </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-anoncontribs" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:MyContributions" title="A list of edits made from this IP address [y]" accesskey="y"><span>Contributions</span></a></li><li id="pt-anontalk" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:MyTalk" title="Discussion about edits from this IP address [n]" accesskey="n"><span>Talk</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </header> </div> <div class="mw-page-container"> <div class="mw-page-container-inner"> <div class="vector-sitenotice-container"> <div id="siteNotice"><!-- CentralNotice --></div> </div> <div class="vector-column-start"> <div class="vector-main-menu-container"> <div id="mw-navigation"> <nav id="mw-panel" class="vector-main-menu-landmark" aria-label="Site"> <div id="vector-main-menu-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav id="mw-panel-toc" aria-label="Contents" data-event-name="ui.sidebar-toc" class="mw-table-of-contents-container vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-toc-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-toc" class="vector-toc vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-toc-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="toc-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-toc" > <h2 class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Contents</h2> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-toc.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-toc.unpin">hide</button> </div> <ul class="vector-toc-contents" id="mw-panel-toc-list"> <li id="toc-mw-content-text" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1"> <a href="#" class="vector-toc-link"> <div class="vector-toc-text">(Top)</div> </a> </li> <li id="toc-Etymology" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Etymology"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1</span> <span>Etymology</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Etymology-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Usage" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Usage"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Usage</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Usage-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Usage subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Usage-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-In_popular_culture" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#In_popular_culture"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2.1</span> <span>In popular culture</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-In_popular_culture-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-US_case_law" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#US_case_law"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2.2</span> <span>US case law</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-US_case_law-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-In_literature" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#In_literature"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2.3</span> <span>In literature</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-In_literature-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Literally" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Literally"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2.4</span> <span>Literally</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Literally-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Common_examples" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Common_examples"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2.5</span> <span>Common examples</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Common_examples-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>External links</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-External_links-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" title="Table of Contents" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-label" for="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyperbole</span></h1> <div id="p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-lang" > <input type="checkbox" id="p-lang-btn-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox mw-interlanguage-selector" aria-label="Go to an article in another language. Available in 56 languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-56" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">56 languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-af mw-list-item"><a href="https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbool_(taalleer)" title="Hiperbool (taalleer) – Afrikaans" lang="af" hreflang="af" data-title="Hiperbool (taalleer)" data-language-autonym="Afrikaans" data-language-local-name="Afrikaans" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Afrikaans</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-als mw-list-item"><a href="https://als.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbel_(Sprache)" title="Hyperbel (Sprache) – Alemannic" lang="gsw" hreflang="gsw" data-title="Hyperbel (Sprache)" data-language-autonym="Alemannisch" data-language-local-name="Alemannic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Alemannisch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ar mw-list-item"><a href="https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%A9_(%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%A9)" title="مبالغة (لغة) – Arabic" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" data-title="مبالغة (لغة)" data-language-autonym="العربية" data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-be mw-list-item"><a href="https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D1%96%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0_(%D1%80%D1%8B%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%8B%D0%BA%D0%B0)" title="Гіпербала (рыторыка) – Belarusian" lang="be" hreflang="be" data-title="Гіпербала (рыторыка)" data-language-autonym="Беларуская" data-language-local-name="Belarusian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Беларуская</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-be-x-old mw-list-item"><a href="https://be-tarask.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D1%96%D0%BF%D1%8D%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0_(%D0%BB%D1%96%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%9E%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B0)" title="Гіпэрбала (літаратуразнаўства) – Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)" lang="be-tarask" hreflang="be-tarask" data-title="Гіпэрбала (літаратуразнаўства)" data-language-autonym="Беларуская (тарашкевіца)" data-language-local-name="Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Беларуская (тарашкевіца)</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bg mw-list-item"><a href="https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A5%D0%B8%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0_(%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0)" title="Хипербола (литература) – Bulgarian" lang="bg" hreflang="bg" data-title="Хипербола (литература)" data-language-autonym="Български" data-language-local-name="Bulgarian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Български</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bs mw-list-item"><a href="https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbola_(figura)" title="Hiperbola (figura) – Bosnian" lang="bs" hreflang="bs" data-title="Hiperbola (figura)" data-language-autonym="Bosanski" data-language-local-name="Bosnian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bosanski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ca mw-list-item"><a href="https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip%C3%A8rbole" title="Hipèrbole – Catalan" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" data-title="Hipèrbole" data-language-autonym="Català" data-language-local-name="Catalan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Català</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cs mw-list-item"><a href="https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbola_(literatura)" title="Hyperbola (literatura) – Czech" lang="cs" hreflang="cs" data-title="Hyperbola (literatura)" data-language-autonym="Čeština" data-language-local-name="Czech" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Čeština</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cy mw-list-item"><a href="https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gormodiaith" title="Gormodiaith – Welsh" lang="cy" hreflang="cy" data-title="Gormodiaith" data-language-autonym="Cymraeg" data-language-local-name="Welsh" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Cymraeg</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-da mw-list-item"><a href="https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbel_(retorik)" title="Hyperbel (retorik) – Danish" lang="da" hreflang="da" data-title="Hyperbel (retorik)" data-language-autonym="Dansk" data-language-local-name="Danish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Dansk</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbel_(Sprache)" title="Hyperbel (Sprache) – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Hyperbel (Sprache)" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-et mw-list-item"><a href="https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCperbool_(kirjandus)" title="Hüperbool (kirjandus) – Estonian" lang="et" hreflang="et" data-title="Hüperbool (kirjandus)" data-language-autonym="Eesti" data-language-local-name="Estonian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Eesti</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-el mw-list-item"><a href="https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A5%CF%80%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%B2%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%AE" title="Υπερβολή – Greek" lang="el" hreflang="el" data-title="Υπερβολή" data-language-autonym="Ελληνικά" data-language-local-name="Greek" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Ελληνικά</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip%C3%A9rbole" title="Hipérbole – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Hipérbole" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-eo mw-list-item"><a href="https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troigo" title="Troigo – Esperanto" lang="eo" hreflang="eo" data-title="Troigo" data-language-autonym="Esperanto" data-language-local-name="Esperanto" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Esperanto</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-eu mw-list-item"><a href="https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbole" title="Hiperbole – Basque" lang="eu" hreflang="eu" data-title="Hiperbole" data-language-autonym="Euskara" data-language-local-name="Basque" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Euskara</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%BA%D9%87" title="مبالغه – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="مبالغه" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole_(rh%C3%A9torique)" title="Hyperbole (rhétorique) – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="Hyperbole (rhétorique)" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-gl mw-list-item"><a href="https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip%C3%A9rbole" title="Hipérbole – Galician" lang="gl" hreflang="gl" data-title="Hipérbole" data-language-autonym="Galego" data-language-local-name="Galician" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Galego</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EA%B3%BC%EC%9E%A5%EB%B2%95" title="과장법 – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="과장법" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hy mw-list-item"><a href="https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D5%89%D5%A1%D6%83%D5%A1%D5%A6%D5%A1%D5%B6%D6%81%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%A9%D5%B5%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B6" title="Չափազանցություն – Armenian" lang="hy" hreflang="hy" data-title="Չափազանցություն" data-language-autonym="Հայերեն" data-language-local-name="Armenian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Հայերեն</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hr mw-list-item"><a href="https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbola_(figura)" title="Hiperbola (figura) – Croatian" lang="hr" hreflang="hr" data-title="Hiperbola (figura)" data-language-autonym="Hrvatski" data-language-local-name="Croatian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Hrvatski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-id mw-list-item"><a href="https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbol" title="Hiperbol – Indonesian" lang="id" hreflang="id" data-title="Hiperbol" data-language-autonym="Bahasa Indonesia" data-language-local-name="Indonesian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bahasa Indonesia</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-is mw-list-item"><a href="https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Dkjur" title="Ýkjur – Icelandic" lang="is" hreflang="is" data-title="Ýkjur" data-language-autonym="Íslenska" data-language-local-name="Icelandic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Íslenska</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iperbole_(figura_retorica)" title="Iperbole (figura retorica) – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Iperbole (figura retorica)" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-he mw-list-item"><a href="https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%92%D7%96%D7%9E%D7%94" title="הגזמה – Hebrew" lang="he" hreflang="he" data-title="הגזמה" data-language-autonym="עברית" data-language-local-name="Hebrew" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>עברית</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-kn mw-list-item"><a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%85%E0%B2%A4%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%B6%E0%B2%AF%E0%B3%8B%E0%B2%95%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%A4%E0%B2%BF" title="ಅತಿಶಯೋಕ್ತಿ – Kannada" lang="kn" hreflang="kn" data-title="ಅತಿಶಯೋಕ್ತಿ" data-language-autonym="ಕನ್ನಡ" data-language-local-name="Kannada" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>ಕನ್ನಡ</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ka mw-list-item"><a href="https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%83%B0%E1%83%98%E1%83%9E%E1%83%94%E1%83%A0%E1%83%91%E1%83%9D%E1%83%9A%E1%83%90_(%E1%83%94%E1%83%9C%E1%83%90)" title="ჰიპერბოლა (ენა) – Georgian" lang="ka" hreflang="ka" data-title="ჰიპერბოლა (ენა)" data-language-autonym="ქართული" data-language-local-name="Georgian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>ქართული</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-kk mw-list-item"><a href="https://kk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D0%B8%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0_(%D0%B6%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%83)" title="Гипербола (жантану) – Kazakh" lang="kk" hreflang="kk" data-title="Гипербола (жантану)" data-language-autonym="Қазақша" data-language-local-name="Kazakh" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Қазақша</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ky mw-list-item"><a href="https://ky.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D0%B8%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0" title="Гипербола – Kyrgyz" lang="ky" hreflang="ky" data-title="Гипербола" data-language-autonym="Кыргызча" data-language-local-name="Kyrgyz" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Кыргызча</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-lt mw-list-item"><a href="https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbol%C4%97_(retorika)" title="Hiperbolė (retorika) – Lithuanian" lang="lt" hreflang="lt" data-title="Hiperbolė (retorika)" data-language-autonym="Lietuvių" data-language-local-name="Lithuanian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Lietuvių</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-mk mw-list-item"><a href="https://mk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A5%D0%B8%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0_(%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0)" title="Хипербола (лингвистика) – Macedonian" lang="mk" hreflang="mk" data-title="Хипербола (лингвистика)" data-language-autonym="Македонски" data-language-local-name="Macedonian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Македонски</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ms mw-list-item"><a href="https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbola" title="Hiperbola – Malay" lang="ms" hreflang="ms" data-title="Hiperbola" data-language-autonym="Bahasa Melayu" data-language-local-name="Malay" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bahasa Melayu</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-mdf mw-list-item"><a href="https://mdf.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D0%B8%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%8C" title="Гиперболась – Moksha" lang="mdf" hreflang="mdf" data-title="Гиперболась" data-language-autonym="Мокшень" data-language-local-name="Moksha" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Мокшень</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nl mw-list-item"><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbool_(stijlfiguur)" title="Hyperbool (stijlfiguur) – Dutch" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" data-title="Hyperbool (stijlfiguur)" data-language-autonym="Nederlands" data-language-local-name="Dutch" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Nederlands</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ja mw-list-item"><a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%AA%87%E5%BC%B5%E6%B3%95" title="誇張法 – Japanese" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" data-title="誇張法" data-language-autonym="日本語" data-language-local-name="Japanese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>日本語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-no mw-list-item"><a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbol" title="Hyperbol – Norwegian Bokmål" lang="nb" hreflang="nb" data-title="Hyperbol" data-language-autonym="Norsk bokmål" data-language-local-name="Norwegian Bokmål" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Norsk bokmål</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-oc mw-list-item"><a href="https://oc.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iperb%C3%B2la_(retorica)" title="Iperbòla (retorica) – Occitan" lang="oc" hreflang="oc" data-title="Iperbòla (retorica)" data-language-autonym="Occitan" data-language-local-name="Occitan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Occitan</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uz mw-list-item"><a href="https://uz.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mubolag%CA%BBa" title="Mubolagʻa – Uzbek" lang="uz" hreflang="uz" data-title="Mubolagʻa" data-language-autonym="Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча" data-language-local-name="Uzbek" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pl mw-list-item"><a href="https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbola_(teoria_literatury)" title="Hiperbola (teoria literatury) – Polish" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" data-title="Hiperbola (teoria literatury)" data-language-autonym="Polski" data-language-local-name="Polish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Polski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip%C3%A9rbole_(figura_de_estilo)" title="Hipérbole (figura de estilo) – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="Hipérbole (figura de estilo)" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Português</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ro mw-list-item"><a href="https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbol%C4%83_(figur%C4%83_de_stil)" title="Hiperbolă (figură de stil) – Romanian" lang="ro" hreflang="ro" data-title="Hiperbolă (figură de stil)" data-language-autonym="Română" data-language-local-name="Romanian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Română</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D0%B8%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0_(%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0)" title="Гипербола (риторика) – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Гипербола (риторика)" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sq mw-list-item"><a href="https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbola" title="Hiperbola – Albanian" lang="sq" hreflang="sq" data-title="Hiperbola" data-language-autonym="Shqip" data-language-local-name="Albanian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Shqip</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-simple mw-list-item"><a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaggeration" title="Exaggeration – Simple English" lang="en-simple" hreflang="en-simple" data-title="Exaggeration" data-language-autonym="Simple English" data-language-local-name="Simple English" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Simple English</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sk mw-list-item"><a href="https://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbola_(literat%C3%BAra)" title="Hyperbola (literatúra) – Slovak" lang="sk" hreflang="sk" data-title="Hyperbola (literatúra)" data-language-autonym="Slovenčina" data-language-local-name="Slovak" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Slovenčina</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sr mw-list-item"><a href="https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A5%D0%B8%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0_(%D0%BA%D1%9A%D0%B8%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82)" title="Хипербола (књижевност) – Serbian" lang="sr" hreflang="sr" data-title="Хипербола (књижевност)" data-language-autonym="Српски / srpski" data-language-local-name="Serbian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Српски / srpski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sh mw-list-item"><a href="https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiperbola_(figura)" title="Hiperbola (figura) – Serbo-Croatian" lang="sh" hreflang="sh" data-title="Hiperbola (figura)" data-language-autonym="Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски" data-language-local-name="Serbo-Croatian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fi mw-list-item"><a href="https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbola" title="Hyperbola – Finnish" lang="fi" hreflang="fi" data-title="Hyperbola" data-language-autonym="Suomi" data-language-local-name="Finnish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Suomi</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sv mw-list-item"><a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbol" title="Hyperbol – Swedish" lang="sv" hreflang="sv" data-title="Hyperbol" data-language-autonym="Svenska" data-language-local-name="Swedish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Svenska</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-th mw-list-item"><a href="https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%8C" title="อติพจน์ – Thai" lang="th" hreflang="th" data-title="อติพจน์" data-language-autonym="ไทย" data-language-local-name="Thai" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>ไทย</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tr mw-list-item"><a href="https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCbala%C4%9Fa" title="Mübalağa – Turkish" lang="tr" hreflang="tr" data-title="Mübalağa" data-language-autonym="Türkçe" data-language-local-name="Turkish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Türkçe</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk mw-list-item"><a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D1%96%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0_(%D0%BB%D1%96%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0)" title="Гіпербола (література) – Ukrainian" lang="uk" hreflang="uk" data-title="Гіпербола (література)" data-language-autonym="Українська" data-language-local-name="Ukrainian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Українська</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh-yue mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%AA%87%E5%BC%B5" title="誇張 – Cantonese" lang="yue" hreflang="yue" data-title="誇張" data-language-autonym="粵語" data-language-local-name="Cantonese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>粵語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%AA%87%E9%A3%BE" title="誇飾 – Chinese" lang="zh" hreflang="zh" data-title="誇飾" data-language-autonym="中文" data-language-local-name="Chinese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>中文</span></a></li> </ul> <div class="after-portlet after-portlet-lang"><span class="wb-langlinks-edit wb-langlinks-link"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q181036#sitelinks-wikipedia" title="Edit interlanguage links" class="wbc-editpage">Edit links</a></span></div> </div> </div> </div> </header> <div class="vector-page-toolbar"> <div class="vector-page-toolbar-container"> <div id="left-navigation"> <nav aria-label="Namespaces"> <div id="p-associated-pages" class="vector-menu vector-menu-tabs mw-portlet mw-portlet-associated-pages" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-nstab-main" class="selected vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Hyperbole" title="View the content page [c]" accesskey="c"><span>Article</span></a></li><li id="ca-talk" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Talk:Hyperbole" rel="discussion" title="Discuss improvements to the content page [t]" accesskey="t"><span>Talk</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="vector-variants-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown emptyPortlet" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-variants-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-variants-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Change language variant" > <label id="vector-variants-dropdown-label" for="vector-variants-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">English</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="p-variants" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-variants emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> <div id="right-navigation" class="vector-collapsible"> <nav aria-label="Views"> <div id="p-views" class="vector-menu vector-menu-tabs mw-portlet mw-portlet-views" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-view" class="selected vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Hyperbole"><span>Read</span></a></li><li id="ca-edit" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit" title="Edit this page [e]" accesskey="e"><span>Edit</span></a></li><li id="ca-history" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=history" title="Past revisions of this page [h]" accesskey="h"><span>View history</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> <nav class="vector-page-tools-landmark" aria-label="Page tools"> <div id="vector-page-tools-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-tools-dropdown" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-tools-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-tools-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Tools" > <label id="vector-page-tools-dropdown-label" for="vector-page-tools-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Tools</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-tools-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> <div id="vector-page-tools" class="vector-page-tools vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-page-tools-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-unpinned" data-feature-name="page-tools-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-page-tools" data-pinned-container-id="vector-page-tools-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-page-tools-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Tools</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-page-tools.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-page-tools.unpin">hide</button> </div> <div id="p-cactions" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-cactions emptyPortlet vector-has-collapsible-items" title="More options" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Actions </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-more-view" class="selected vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Hyperbole"><span>Read</span></a></li><li id="ca-more-edit" class="vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit" title="Edit this page [e]" accesskey="e"><span>Edit</span></a></li><li id="ca-more-history" class="vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=history"><span>View history</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-tb" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-tb" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> General </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="t-whatlinkshere" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Hyperbole" title="List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [j]" accesskey="j"><span>What links here</span></a></li><li id="t-recentchangeslinked" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChangesLinked/Hyperbole" rel="nofollow" title="Recent changes in pages linked from this page [k]" accesskey="k"><span>Related changes</span></a></li><li id="t-upload" class="mw-list-item"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard" title="Upload files [u]" accesskey="u"><span>Upload file</span></a></li><li id="t-specialpages" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:SpecialPages" title="A list of all special pages [q]" accesskey="q"><span>Special pages</span></a></li><li id="t-permalink" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&oldid=1274753420" title="Permanent link to this revision of this page"><span>Permanent link</span></a></li><li id="t-info" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=info" title="More information about this page"><span>Page information</span></a></li><li id="t-cite" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=Hyperbole&id=1274753420&wpFormIdentifier=titleform" title="Information on how to cite this page"><span>Cite this page</span></a></li><li id="t-urlshortener" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UrlShortener&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHyperbole"><span>Get shortened URL</span></a></li><li id="t-urlshortener-qrcode" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:QrCode&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHyperbole"><span>Download QR code</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-coll-print_export" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-coll-print_export" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Print/export </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="coll-download-as-rl" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:DownloadAsPdf&page=Hyperbole&action=show-download-screen" title="Download this page as a PDF file"><span>Download as PDF</span></a></li><li id="t-print" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&printable=yes" title="Printable version of this page [p]" accesskey="p"><span>Printable version</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-wikibase-otherprojects" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-wikibase-otherprojects" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> In other projects </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-commons mw-list-item"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hyperbole" hreflang="en"><span>Wikimedia Commons</span></a></li><li id="t-wikibase" class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-wikibase-dataitem mw-list-item"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q181036" title="Structured data on this page hosted by Wikidata [g]" accesskey="g"><span>Wikidata item</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-column-end"> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav class="vector-page-tools-landmark" aria-label="Page tools"> <div id="vector-page-tools-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> <nav class="vector-appearance-landmark" aria-label="Appearance"> <div id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-appearance" class="vector-appearance vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-appearance-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="appearance-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-appearance" data-pinned-container-id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-appearance-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Appearance</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.unpin">hide</button> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div id="bodyContent" class="vector-body" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container> <div class="vector-body-before-content"> <div class="mw-indicators"> </div> <div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Rhetorical device</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">This article is about the term used in rhetoric. For a geometric curve, see <a href="/wiki/Hyperbola" title="Hyperbola">Hyperbola</a>.</div> <p><b>Hyperbole</b> (<span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt" lang="en-fonipa"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="'h' in 'hi'">h</span><span title="/aɪ/: 'i' in 'tide'">aɪ</span><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="'p' in 'pie'">p</span><span title="/ɜːr/: 'ur' in 'fur'">ɜːr</span><span title="'b' in 'buy'">b</span><span title="/əl/: 'le' in 'bottle'">əl</span><span title="/i/: 'y' in 'happy'">i</span></span>/</a></span> <span class="ext-phonos"><span data-nosnippet="" id="ooui-php-1" class="noexcerpt ext-phonos-PhonosButton ext-phonos-PhonosButton-emptylabel oo-ui-widget oo-ui-widget-enabled oo-ui-buttonElement oo-ui-buttonElement-frameless oo-ui-iconElement oo-ui-buttonWidget" data-ooui="{"_":"mw.Phonos.PhonosButton","href":"\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/transcoded\/7\/74\/En-hyperbole_%28spoken_word%29.ogg\/En-hyperbole_%28spoken_word%29.ogg.mp3","rel":["nofollow"],"framed":false,"icon":"volumeUp","data":{"ipa":"","text":"","lang":"en","wikibase":"","file":"En-hyperbole (spoken word).ogg"},"classes":["noexcerpt","ext-phonos-PhonosButton","ext-phonos-PhonosButton-emptylabel"]}"><a role="button" tabindex="0" href="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/74/En-hyperbole_%28spoken_word%29.ogg/En-hyperbole_%28spoken_word%29.ogg.mp3" rel="nofollow" aria-label="Play audio" title="Play audio" class="oo-ui-buttonElement-button"><span class="oo-ui-iconElement-icon oo-ui-icon-volumeUp"></span><span class="oo-ui-labelElement-label"></span><span class="oo-ui-indicatorElement-indicator oo-ui-indicatorElement-noIndicator"></span></a></span><sup class="ext-phonos-attribution noexcerpt navigation-not-searchable"><a href="/wiki/File:En-hyperbole_(spoken_word).ogg" title="File:En-hyperbole (spoken word).ogg">ⓘ</a></sup></span></span>; adj. <b>hyperbolic</b> <span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt" lang="en-fonipa"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ˌ/: secondary stress follows">ˌ</span><span title="'h' in 'hi'">h</span><span title="/aɪ/: 'i' in 'tide'">aɪ</span><span title="'p' in 'pie'">p</span><span title="/ər/: 'er' in 'letter'">ər</span><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="'b' in 'buy'">b</span><span title="/ɒ/: 'o' in 'body'">ɒ</span><span title="'l' in 'lie'">l</span><span title="/ɪ/: 'i' in 'kit'">ɪ</span><span title="'k' in 'kind'">k</span></span>/</a></span> <span class="ext-phonos"><span data-nosnippet="" id="ooui-php-2" class="noexcerpt ext-phonos-PhonosButton ext-phonos-PhonosButton-emptylabel oo-ui-widget oo-ui-widget-enabled oo-ui-buttonElement oo-ui-buttonElement-frameless oo-ui-iconElement oo-ui-buttonWidget" data-ooui="{"_":"mw.Phonos.PhonosButton","href":"\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/transcoded\/b\/be\/En-hyperbolic_%28spoken_word%29.ogg\/En-hyperbolic_%28spoken_word%29.ogg.mp3","rel":["nofollow"],"framed":false,"icon":"volumeUp","data":{"ipa":"","text":"","lang":"en","wikibase":"","file":"En-hyperbolic (spoken word).ogg"},"classes":["noexcerpt","ext-phonos-PhonosButton","ext-phonos-PhonosButton-emptylabel"]}"><a role="button" tabindex="0" href="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/be/En-hyperbolic_%28spoken_word%29.ogg/En-hyperbolic_%28spoken_word%29.ogg.mp3" rel="nofollow" aria-label="Play audio" title="Play audio" class="oo-ui-buttonElement-button"><span class="oo-ui-iconElement-icon oo-ui-icon-volumeUp"></span><span class="oo-ui-labelElement-label"></span><span class="oo-ui-indicatorElement-indicator oo-ui-indicatorElement-noIndicator"></span></a></span><sup class="ext-phonos-attribution noexcerpt navigation-not-searchable"><a href="/wiki/File:En-hyperbolic_(spoken_word).ogg" title="File:En-hyperbolic (spoken word).ogg">ⓘ</a></sup></span></span>) is the use of <a href="/wiki/Exaggeration" title="Exaggeration">exaggeration</a> as a <a href="/wiki/Rhetorical_device" title="Rhetorical device">rhetorical device</a> or <a href="/wiki/Figure_of_speech" title="Figure of speech">figure of speech</a>. In <a href="/wiki/Rhetoric" title="Rhetoric">rhetoric</a>, it is also sometimes known as <a href="/wiki/Auxesis_(rhetoric)" class="mw-redirect" title="Auxesis (rhetoric)">auxesis</a> (literally 'growth'). In <a href="/wiki/Poetry" title="Poetry">poetry</a> and <a href="/wiki/Public_speaking" title="Public speaking">oratory</a>, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and creates strong impressions. As a figure of speech, it is usually not meant to be taken literally.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Etymology">Etymology</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Etymology"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>'Hyperbole' is derived from the <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Greek_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Ancient Greek language">Ancient Greek</a>: <span lang="grc"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BD%91%CF%80%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%B2%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%AE" class="extiw" title="wikt:ὑπερβολή">ὑπερβολή</a></span> <i>huperbolḗ</i> by way of Latin. The word is composed from <span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BD%91%CF%80%CE%AD%CF%81" class="extiw" title="wikt:ὑπέρ">ὑπέρ</a></span></span> <i>hupér</i> 'above, beyond' and <span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%B2%CE%AC%CE%BB%CE%BB%CF%89" class="extiw" title="wikt:βάλλω">βάλλω</a></span></span> <i>bállō</i> 'throw'. </p><p>Unlike most English words beginning with <i>hyper-</i>, it is stressed on the second syllable. The first known use is in the 15th century.<sup id="cite_ref-merriam_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-merriam-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Usage">Usage</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Usage"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Hyperbole is often used for emphasis or effect. In casual speech, it functions as an <a href="/wiki/Intensifier" title="Intensifier">intensifier</a>:<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-merriam_3-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-merriam-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> saying "the bag weighed a ton"<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> simply means that the bag was extremely heavy.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The rhetorical device may be used for serious or ironic or comic effects.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Understanding hyperbole and its use in context can help understand the speaker's point. Hyperbole generally conveys feelings or emotions from the speaker, or from those who the speaker may talk about. It can be used in a form of humor, excitement, distress, and many other emotions, all depending on the <a href="/wiki/Context_(language_use)" class="mw-redirect" title="Context (language use)">context</a> in which the speaker uses it.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="In_popular_culture">In popular culture</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: In popular culture"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Hyperbole is one of the most widely recognized and used forms of figurative language in everyday life. It is used heavily in advertising and entertainment. Advertisers use hyperbole to exaggerate the benefits of products to boost sales. Repetitive hyperbole is used in <a href="/wiki/Public_relations" title="Public relations">public relations</a> to increase the popularity of a person or product. It is also used in propaganda, giving it a bad reputation.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (September 2020)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="US_case_law">US case law</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: US case law"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Rhetorical hyperbole is defined as "extravagant exaggeration employed for rhetorical effect" for <a href="/wiki/First_Amendment" class="mw-redirect" title="First Amendment">First Amendment</a> purposes. <a href="/w/index.php?title=Greenbelt_Cooperative_Pub._Ass%27n_v._Bresler&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Greenbelt Cooperative Pub. Ass'n v. Bresler (page does not exist)">Greenbelt Cooperative Pub. Ass'n v. Bresler</a> (1970), <a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_Carriers_v._Austin&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Letter Carriers v. Austin (page does not exist)">Letter Carriers v. Austin</a> (1974) and <a href="/wiki/Milkovich_v._Lorain_Journal_Co." title="Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co.">Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co.</a> (1989) are notable cases. In <a href="/wiki/Watts_v._United_States" class="mw-redirect" title="Watts v. United States">Watts v. United States</a> (1969) the defendant was absolved of federal anti-threat punishment for saying "the first person he would put in his scope is <a href="/wiki/L.B.J." class="mw-redirect" title="L.B.J.">L.B.J.</a>"; the court found this to be "political hyperbole".<sup id="cite_ref-hudson20_10-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-hudson20-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="In_literature">In literature</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: In literature"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Hyperbole has been used throughout literature for many centuries. <a href="/wiki/Heroic_drama" title="Heroic drama">Heroic drama</a>, which is drama with an emphasis on grandeur and excess, often makes use of hyperbole to extend the effect and epic nature of the genre. Modern <a href="/wiki/Tall_tale" title="Tall tale">tall tales</a> also make use of hyperbole to exaggerate the feats and characteristics of their protagonists. For example, the American tall tale about <a href="/wiki/Paul_Bunyan" title="Paul Bunyan">Paul Bunyan</a> relies heavily on hyperbole to establish Bunyan's giant stature and abilities.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>For hyperbole to be effective it needs to be obvious, deliberate, and outlandish. Using hyperbolic speech as a character trait can denote an unreliable narrator. </p><p><a href="/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson" title="Ralph Waldo Emerson">Emerson</a>'s <i>Concord Hymn</i> uses hyperbole in the lines "Here once the embattled farmers stood / And fired the shot heard round the world." </p><p>In <a href="/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut" title="Kurt Vonnegut">Kurt Vonnegut</a>'s <i>Slaughterhouse-Five</i>, the protagonist emerges from his shelter to find total destruction, and makes the hyperbolic statement that "Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals." The hyperbole conveys how completely the city was ruined. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Literally">Literally</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Literally"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>One of the most frequently used hyperboles in English is the word <i>literally</i>. It became a controversial issue when millennials began to convolute <i>literally</i> by using the word to artificially substantiate a position.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Many dictionaries now document the meaning as "to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling". Hence, <i>literally</i> has become one of the primary ways to exaggerate and hyperbolize a statement.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Common_examples">Common examples</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Common examples"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>He was so angry, I thought he was going to kill somebody.</li> <li>She had a thousand missed calls.</li> <li>I was so embarrassed, I wanted to die.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Adynaton" title="Adynaton">Adynaton</a>, an impossible form of hyperbole</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Figure_of_speech" title="Figure of speech">Figure of speech</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Litotes" title="Litotes">Litotes</a> and <a href="/wiki/Meiosis_(rhetoric)" class="mw-redirect" title="Meiosis (rhetoric)">meiosis</a>, forms of deliberate <a href="/wiki/Understatement" title="Understatement">understatement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tautology_(language)" title="Tautology (language)">Tautology (language)</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite class="citation encyclopaedia cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hyperbole">"hyperbole"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/Dictionary.com" title="Dictionary.com">Dictionary.com Unabridged</a></i> (Online). n.d<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2012-02-15</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=hyperbole&rft.btitle=Dictionary.com+Unabridged&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dictionary.com%2Fbrowse%2Fhyperbole&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140606050626/http://volweb.utk.edu/school/bedford/harrisms/hyperbole.htm">"Hyperbole"</a>. <i>Harris Middle School</i>. <a href="/wiki/University_of_Tennessee" title="University of Tennessee">University of Tennessee</a>, Knoxville. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://volweb.utk.edu/school/bedford/harrisms/hyperbole.htm">the original</a> on 6 June 2014<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2014-01-10</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Harris+Middle+School&rft.atitle=Hyperbole&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fvolweb.utk.edu%2Fschool%2Fbedford%2Fharrisms%2Fhyperbole.htm&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-merriam-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-merriam_3-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-merriam_3-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hyperbole">"Definition of HYPERBOLE"</a>. <i>Merriam-Webster</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2020-09-18</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Merriam-Webster&rft.atitle=Definition+of+HYPERBOLE&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.merriam-webster.com%2Fdictionary%2Fhyperbole&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFZafarris2017" class="citation web cs1">Zafarris, Jess (2017-11-12). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://uselessetymology.com/2017/11/12/the-etymology-of-hyperbole/">"The Etymology of "Hyperbole"<span class="cs1-kern-right"></span>"</a>. <i>Useless Etymology</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2020-09-18</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Useless+Etymology&rft.atitle=The+Etymology+of+%22Hyperbole%22&rft.date=2017-11-12&rft.aulast=Zafarris&rft.aufirst=Jess&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fuselessetymology.com%2F2017%2F11%2F12%2Fthe-etymology-of-hyperbole%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://literarydevices.net/hyperbole/">"Definition of Hyperbole"</a>. <i>Literary Devices</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">10 January</span> 2014</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Literary+Devices&rft.atitle=Definition+of+Hyperbole&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fliterarydevices.net%2Fhyperbole%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFMahony2003" class="citation book cs1">Mahony, David (2003). <i>Literacy Tests Year 7</i>. Pascal Press. p. 82. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-877-08536-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-1-877-08536-9"><bdi>978-1-877-08536-9</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Literacy+Tests+Year+7&rft.pages=82&rft.pub=Pascal+Press&rft.date=2003&rft.isbn=978-1-877-08536-9&rft.aulast=Mahony&rft.aufirst=David&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170717005504/http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Figures/H/hyperbole.htm">"Hyperbole"</a>. Byu.edu. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Figures/H/hyperbole.htm">the original</a> on 17 July 2017<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">16 May</span> 2019</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Hyperbole&rft.pub=Byu.edu&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Frhetoric.byu.edu%2FFigures%2FH%2Fhyperbole.htm&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">M. H. Abrams, <i>A Glossary of Literary Terms</i>, 11th ed. (Boston: Cengage, 2015), 169.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFJohnson" class="citation web cs1">Johnson, Christopher. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/christopherdjohnson/files/rq_review_of_hyperboles.pdf">"The Rhetoric of Excess in Baroque Literature and Thought"</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>. <i>Scholar.harvard.edu</i>. Harvard.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Scholar.harvard.edu&rft.atitle=The+Rhetoric+of+Excess+in+Baroque+Literature+and+Thought&rft.aulast=Johnson&rft.aufirst=Christopher&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.harvard.edu%2Ffiles%2Fchristopherdjohnson%2Ffiles%2Frq_review_of_hyperboles.pdf&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-hudson20-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-hudson20_10-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFHudson2020" class="citation news cs1">Hudson, David L. Jr. (14 April 2020). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1796/rhetorical-hyperbole">"Rhetorical Hyperbole"</a>. Middle Tennessee State University. The First Amendment Encyclopedia.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Rhetorical+Hyperbole&rft.date=2020-04-14&rft.aulast=Hudson&rft.aufirst=David+L.+Jr.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mtsu.edu%2Ffirst-amendment%2Farticle%2F1796%2Frhetorical-hyperbole&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFLeengen2019" class="citation web cs1">Leengen, Marcus (2019-11-26). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://figurativelanguage.net/hyperbole.html">"What is Hyperbole? 🕮 Hyperbole definition and meaning + examples"</a>. <i>Figurative Language</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2020-09-18</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Figurative+Language&rft.atitle=What+is+Hyperbole%3F+%F0%9F%95%AE+Hyperbole+definition+and+meaning+%2B+examples&rft.date=2019-11-26&rft.aulast=Leengen&rft.aufirst=Marcus&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Ffigurativelanguage.net%2Fhyperbole.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.thewarriorwire.org/4018/lifestyle/literally-literally-needs-to-stop/">"<span class="cs1-kern-left"></span>"Literally" Literally Needs to Stop"</a>. <i>The Warrior Wire</i>. 2014-08-25<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2024-06-05</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=The+Warrior+Wire&rft.atitle=%22Literally%22+Literally+Needs+to+Stop&rft.date=2014-08-25&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thewarriorwire.org%2F4018%2Flifestyle%2Fliterally-literally-needs-to-stop%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.literarydevices.com/hyperbole/">"Hyperbole Examples and Definition"</a>. <i>Literary Devices</i>. 2014-08-25<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2020-09-18</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Literary+Devices&rft.atitle=Hyperbole+Examples+and+Definition&rft.date=2014-08-25&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.literarydevices.com%2Fhyperbole%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1235681985">.mw-parser-output .side-box{margin:4px 0;box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #aaa;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em;background-color:var(--background-color-interactive-subtle,#f8f9fa);display:flow-root}.mw-parser-output .side-box-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output .side-box-text{padding:0.25em 0.9em}.mw-parser-output .side-box-image{padding:2px 0 2px 0.9em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .side-box-imageright{padding:2px 0.9em 2px 0;text-align:center}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .side-box-flex{display:flex;align-items:center}.mw-parser-output .side-box-text{flex:1;min-width:0}}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .side-box{width:238px}.mw-parser-output .side-box-right{clear:right;float:right;margin-left:1em}.mw-parser-output .side-box-left{margin-right:1em}}</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1237033735">@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .sistersitebox{display:none!important}}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sistersitebox img[src*="Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg"]{background-color:white}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sistersitebox img[src*="Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg"]{background-color:white}}</style><div class="side-box side-box-right plainlinks sistersitebox"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1126788409">.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0}</style> <div class="side-box-flex"> <div class="side-box-image"><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg/40px-Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg.png" decoding="async" width="40" height="40" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg/60px-Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg/80px-Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="512" /></a></span></div> <div class="side-box-text plainlist">Look up <i><b><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hyperbole" class="extiw" title="wiktionary:hyperbole">hyperbole</a></b></i> in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.</div></div> </div> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://poemanalysis.com/figurative-language/hyperbole/">Examples of hyperbole in poetry</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://literaryterms.net/hyperbole/">Definition and Examples of Hyperbole</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-hyperbole">What is Hyperbole?</a></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRitter" class="citation web cs1">Ritter, Joshua. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=communication_diss">"Recovering Hyperbole: Re-Imagining the Limits of Rhetoric for an age of Excess"</a>. <i>scholarworks.gsu.edu</i>. Georgia State University.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=scholarworks.gsu.edu&rft.atitle=Recovering+Hyperbole%3A+Re-Imagining+the+Limits+of+Rhetoric+for+an+age+of+Excess&rft.aulast=Ritter&rft.aufirst=Joshua&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fscholarworks.gsu.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1020%26context%3Dcommunication_diss&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AHyperbole" class="Z3988"></span></li></ul> <div class="navbox-styles"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ul{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist .mw-empty-li{display:none}.mw-parser-output .hlist dt::after{content:": "}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li::after{content:" · ";font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li:last-child::after{content:none}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li li:first-child::before{content:" (";font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd li:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt li:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li li:last-child::after{content:")";font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol{counter-reset:listitem}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol>li{counter-increment:listitem}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol>li::before{content:" "counter(listitem)"\a0 "}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd ol>li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt ol>li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li ol>li:first-child::before{content:" ("counter(listitem)"\a0 "}</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236075235">.mw-parser-output .navbox{box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #a2a9b1;width:100%;clear:both;font-size:88%;text-align:center;padding:1px;margin:1em auto 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbox{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox-styles+.navbox{margin-top:-1px}.mw-parser-output .navbox-inner,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{width:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-title,.mw-parser-output .navbox-abovebelow{padding:0.25em 1em;line-height:1.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group{white-space:nowrap;text-align:right}.mw-parser-output .navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{background-color:#fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-list{line-height:1.5em;border-color:#fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-list-with-group{text-align:left;border-left-width:2px;border-left-style:solid}.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-group,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-image,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-list{border-top:2px solid #fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title{background-color:#ccf}.mw-parser-output .navbox-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-title{background-color:#ddf}.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-abovebelow{background-color:#e6e6ff}.mw-parser-output .navbox-even{background-color:#f7f7f7}.mw-parser-output .navbox-odd{background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ul,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ul{padding:0.125em 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbar{display:block;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title .navbar{float:left;text-align:left;margin-right:0.5em}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .navbox-image img{max-width:none!important}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .navbox{display:none!important}}</style></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Figures_of_speech96" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Figures_of_speech" title="Template:Figures of speech"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Figures_of_speech" title="Template talk:Figures of speech"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Figures_of_speech" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Figures of speech"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Figures_of_speech96" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Figure_of_speech" title="Figure of speech">Figures of speech</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Scheme_(rhetoric)" title="Scheme (rhetoric)">Schemes</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Alliteration" title="Alliteration">Alliteration</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anadiplosis" title="Anadiplosis">Anadiplosis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anaphora_(rhetoric)" title="Anaphora (rhetoric)">Anaphora</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Antimetabole" title="Antimetabole">Antimetabole</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Antithesis" title="Antithesis">Antithesis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Aposiopesis" title="Aposiopesis">Aposiopesis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Assonance" title="Assonance">Assonance</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Asyndeton" title="Asyndeton">Asyndeton</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Chiasmus" title="Chiasmus">Chiasmus</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Climax_(rhetoric)" title="Climax (rhetoric)">Climax</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Climax_(rhetoric)#Anticlimax" title="Climax (rhetoric)">Anti</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Literary_consonance" title="Literary consonance">Consonance</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Epanalepsis" class="mw-redirect" title="Epanalepsis">Epanalepsis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Epiphrase" title="Epiphrase">Epiphrase</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Epistrophe" title="Epistrophe">Epistrophe</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Epizeuxis" title="Epizeuxis">Epizeuxis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hendiadys" title="Hendiadys">Hendiadys</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Homeoteleuton" title="Homeoteleuton">Homeoteleuton</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hypallage" title="Hypallage">Hypallage</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hyperbaton" title="Hyperbaton">Hyperbaton</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hysteron_proteron" title="Hysteron proteron">Hysteron proteron</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Isocolon" title="Isocolon">Isocolon</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Parallelism_(rhetoric)" title="Parallelism (rhetoric)">Parallelism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Polyptoton" title="Polyptoton">Polyptoton</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Polysyndeton" title="Polysyndeton">Polysyndeton</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Spoonerism" title="Spoonerism">Spoonerism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Symploce" title="Symploce">Symploce</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tmesis" title="Tmesis">Tmesis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Zeugma_and_syllepsis" title="Zeugma and syllepsis">Zeugma</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Trope_(literature)" title="Trope (literature)">Tropes</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Allegory" title="Allegory">Allegory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Allusion" title="Allusion">Allusion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Antiphrasis" title="Antiphrasis">Antiphrasis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Antonomasia" title="Antonomasia">Antonomasia</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Aphorism" title="Aphorism">Aphorism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Apostrophe_(figure_of_speech)" title="Apostrophe (figure of speech)">Apostrophe</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Catachresis" title="Catachresis">Catachresis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ecphonesis" title="Ecphonesis">Ecphonesis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ekphrasis" title="Ekphrasis">Ekphrasis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Epanorthosis" title="Epanorthosis">Epanorthosis</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Hyperbole</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Adynaton" title="Adynaton">Adynaton</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dysphemism" title="Dysphemism">Dysphemism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Euphemism" title="Euphemism">Euphemism</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Meiosis_(figure_of_speech)" title="Meiosis (figure of speech)">Meiosis</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Innuendo" title="Innuendo">Innuendo</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Irony" title="Irony">Irony</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Apophasis" title="Apophasis">Apophasis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sarcasm" title="Sarcasm">Sarcasm</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Litotes" title="Litotes">Litotes</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Metaphor" title="Metaphor">Metaphor</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Metonymy" title="Metonymy">Metonymy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Oxymoron" title="Oxymoron">Oxymoron</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Onomatopoeia" title="Onomatopoeia">Onomatopoeia</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Personification" title="Personification">Personification</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pleonasm" title="Pleonasm">Pleonasm</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Procatalepsis" title="Procatalepsis">Procatalepsis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pun" title="Pun">Pun</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Antanaclasis" title="Antanaclasis">Antanaclasis</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rhetorical_question" title="Rhetorical question">Rhetorical question</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Simile" title="Simile">Simile</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Synecdoche" title="Synecdoche">Synecdoche</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tautology_(language)" title="Tautology (language)">Tautology</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236075235"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1038841319">.mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}</style><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1038841319"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1038841319"></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox authority-control" aria-label="Navbox1204" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Help:Authority_control" title="Help:Authority control">Authority control databases</a>: National <span class="mw-valign-text-top noprint" typeof="mw:File/Frameless"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q181036#identifiers" title="Edit this at Wikidata"><img alt="Edit this at Wikidata" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/10px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png" decoding="async" width="10" height="10" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/15px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/20px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="20" data-file-height="20" /></a></span></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"><ul><li><span class="uid"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://d-nb.info/gnd/4161035-0">Germany</a></span></li><li><span class="uid"><span class="rt-commentedText tooltip tooltip-dotted" title="Hyperbole"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh85063674">United States</a></span></span></li><li><span class="uid"><span class="rt-commentedText tooltip tooltip-dotted" title="Hyperbole"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb123259978">France</a></span></span></li><li><span class="uid"><span class="rt-commentedText tooltip tooltip-dotted" title="Hyperbole"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb123259978">BnF data</a></span></span></li><li><span class="uid"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nli.org.il/en/authorities/987007536184105171">Israel</a></span></li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div> <!-- NewPP limit report Parsed by mw‐web.codfw.main‐7878cd4448‐tglx6 Cached time: 20250211195707 Cache expiry: 2592000 Reduced expiry: false Complications: [vary‐revision‐sha1, show‐toc] CPU time usage: 0.456 seconds Real time usage: 0.582 seconds Preprocessor visited node count: 1889/1000000 Post‐expand include size: 40988/2097152 bytes Template argument size: 1970/2097152 bytes Highest expansion depth: 12/100 Expensive parser function count: 5/500 Unstrip recursion depth: 1/20 Unstrip post‐expand size: 61155/5000000 bytes Lua time usage: 0.338/10.000 seconds Lua memory usage: 13784897/52428800 bytes Number of Wikibase entities loaded: 1/400 --> <!-- Transclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template) 100.00% 541.069 1 -total 23.56% 127.449 1 Template:Reflist 19.77% 106.954 1 Template:Langx 14.86% 80.428 1 Template:Figures_of_speech 14.53% 78.638 1 Template:Navbox 13.87% 75.062 1 Template:Cite_Dictionary.com 13.59% 73.516 1 Template:Cite_dictionary 11.48% 62.108 1 Template:Short_description 8.88% 48.073 1 Template:Authority_control 8.17% 44.223 2 Template:IPAc-en --> <!-- Saved in parser cache with key enwiki:pcache:184433:|#|:idhash:canonical and timestamp 20250211195707 and revision id 1274753420. Rendering was triggered because: page-view --> </div><!--esi <esi:include src="/esitest-fa8a495983347898/content" /> --><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?useformat=desktop&type=1x1&usesul3=0" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;"></noscript> <div class="printfooter" data-nosnippet="">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&oldid=1274753420">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&oldid=1274753420</a>"</div></div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Rhetorical_techniques" title="Category:Rhetorical techniques">Rhetorical techniques</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Tall_tales" title="Category:Tall tales">Tall tales</a></li></ul></div><div id="mw-hidden-catlinks" class="mw-hidden-catlinks mw-hidden-cats-hidden">Hidden categories: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Pages_using_the_Phonos_extension" title="Category:Pages using the Phonos extension">Pages using the Phonos extension</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Articles_with_short_description" title="Category:Articles with short description">Articles with short description</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Short_description_is_different_from_Wikidata" title="Category:Short description is different from Wikidata">Short description is different from Wikidata</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Pages_including_recorded_pronunciations" title="Category:Pages including recorded pronunciations">Pages including recorded pronunciations</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Articles_containing_Ancient_Greek_(to_1453)-language_text" title="Category:Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text">Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:All_articles_with_unsourced_statements" title="Category:All articles with unsourced statements">All articles with unsourced statements</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Articles_with_unsourced_statements_from_September_2020" title="Category:Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020">Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020</a></li></ul></div></div> </div> </main> </div> <div class="mw-footer-container"> <footer id="footer" class="mw-footer" > <ul id="footer-info"> <li id="footer-info-lastmod"> This page was last edited on 9 February 2025, at 01:31<span class="anonymous-show"> (UTC)</span>.</li> <li id="footer-info-copyright">Text is available under the <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License" title="Wikipedia:Text of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License</a>; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the <a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Terms_of_Use" class="extiw" title="foundation:Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Terms of Use">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy_policy" class="extiw" title="foundation:Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy policy">Privacy Policy</a>. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/">Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.</a>, a non-profit organization.</li> </ul> <ul id="footer-places"> <li id="footer-places-privacy"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy_policy">Privacy policy</a></li> <li id="footer-places-about"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:About">About Wikipedia</a></li> <li id="footer-places-disclaimers"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer">Disclaimers</a></li> <li id="footer-places-contact"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contact_us">Contact Wikipedia</a></li> <li id="footer-places-wm-codeofconduct"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Universal_Code_of_Conduct">Code of Conduct</a></li> <li id="footer-places-developers"><a href="https://developer.wikimedia.org">Developers</a></li> <li id="footer-places-statslink"><a href="https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/en.wikipedia.org">Statistics</a></li> <li id="footer-places-cookiestatement"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Cookie_statement">Cookie statement</a></li> <li id="footer-places-mobileview"><a href="//en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hyperbole&mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile" class="noprint stopMobileRedirectToggle">Mobile view</a></li> </ul> <ul id="footer-icons" class="noprint"> <li id="footer-copyrightico"><a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--size-large cdx-button--fake-button--enabled"><img src="/static/images/footer/wikimedia-button.svg" width="84" height="29" alt="Wikimedia Foundation" lang="en" loading="lazy"></a></li> <li id="footer-poweredbyico"><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--size-large cdx-button--fake-button--enabled"><img src="/w/resources/assets/poweredby_mediawiki.svg" alt="Powered by MediaWiki" width="88" height="31" loading="lazy"></a></li> </ul> </footer> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-header-container vector-sticky-header-container"> <div id="vector-sticky-header" class="vector-sticky-header"> <div class="vector-sticky-header-start"> <div class="vector-sticky-header-icon-start vector-button-flush-left vector-button-flush-right" aria-hidden="true"> <button class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-sticky-header-search-toggle" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ui.vector-sticky-search-form.icon"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-search mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-search"></span> <span>Search</span> </button> </div> <div role="search" class="vector-search-box-vue vector-search-box-show-thumbnail vector-search-box"> <div class="vector-typeahead-search-container"> <div class="cdx-typeahead-search cdx-typeahead-search--show-thumbnail"> <form action="/w/index.php" id="vector-sticky-search-form" class="cdx-search-input cdx-search-input--has-end-button"> <div class="cdx-search-input__input-wrapper" data-search-loc="header-moved"> <div class="cdx-text-input cdx-text-input--has-start-icon"> <input class="cdx-text-input__input" type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search Wikipedia"> <span class="cdx-text-input__icon cdx-text-input__start-icon"></span> </div> <input type="hidden" name="title" value="Special:Search"> </div> <button class="cdx-button cdx-search-input__end-button">Search</button> </form> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-context-bar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-sticky-header-toc" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-sticky-header-toc vector-sticky-header-toc vector-button-flush-left" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-sticky-header-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-sticky-header-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-sticky-header-toc-label" for="vector-sticky-header-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-sticky-header-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <div class="vector-sticky-header-context-bar-primary" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyperbole</span></div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-end" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="vector-sticky-header-icons"> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-talk-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="talk-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-speechBubbles mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-speechBubbles"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-subject-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="subject-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-article mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-article"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-history-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="history-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-history mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-history"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only mw-watchlink" id="ca-watchstar-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="watch-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-star mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-star"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-edit-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="wikitext-edit-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikiText mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-wikiText"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-ve-edit-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ve-edit-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-edit mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-edit"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-viewsource-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ve-edit-protected-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-editLock mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-editLock"></span> <span></span> </a> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-buttons"> <button class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet mw-interlanguage-selector" id="p-lang-btn-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-language"></span> <span>56 languages</span> </button> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive" id="ca-addsection-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="addsection-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-speechBubbleAdd-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-speechBubbleAdd-progressive"></span> <span>Add topic</span> </a> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-icon-end"> <div class="vector-user-links"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-settings" id="p-dock-bottom"> <ul></ul> </div><script>(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.config.set({"wgHostname":"mw-web.codfw.main-5f467697bf-ldhnl","wgBackendResponseTime":145,"wgPageParseReport":{"limitreport":{"cputime":"0.456","walltime":"0.582","ppvisitednodes":{"value":1889,"limit":1000000},"postexpandincludesize":{"value":40988,"limit":2097152},"templateargumentsize":{"value":1970,"limit":2097152},"expansiondepth":{"value":12,"limit":100},"expensivefunctioncount":{"value":5,"limit":500},"unstrip-depth":{"value":1,"limit":20},"unstrip-size":{"value":61155,"limit":5000000},"entityaccesscount":{"value":1,"limit":400},"timingprofile":["100.00% 541.069 1 -total"," 23.56% 127.449 1 Template:Reflist"," 19.77% 106.954 1 Template:Langx"," 14.86% 80.428 1 Template:Figures_of_speech"," 14.53% 78.638 1 Template:Navbox"," 13.87% 75.062 1 Template:Cite_Dictionary.com"," 13.59% 73.516 1 Template:Cite_dictionary"," 11.48% 62.108 1 Template:Short_description"," 8.88% 48.073 1 Template:Authority_control"," 8.17% 44.223 2 Template:IPAc-en"]},"scribunto":{"limitreport-timeusage":{"value":"0.338","limit":"10.000"},"limitreport-memusage":{"value":13784897,"limit":52428800}},"cachereport":{"origin":"mw-web.codfw.main-7878cd4448-tglx6","timestamp":"20250211195707","ttl":2592000,"transientcontent":false}}});});</script> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Article","name":"Hyperbole","url":"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hyperbole","sameAs":"http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q181036","mainEntity":"http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q181036","author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.wikimedia.org\/static\/images\/wmf-hor-googpub.png"}},"datePublished":"2003-02-17T17:24:16Z","dateModified":"2025-02-09T01:31:22Z","headline":"exaggeration as rhetorical device"}</script> </body> </html>