Definition:
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement. Adjective: hyperbolic.
See also:
- Hyperbole in Martin Amis's Money
- H.L. Mencken's Hyperbolic Prose Style
- Hyperbole in Dave Barry's "Revenge of the Pork Person"
Etymology:
From the Greek, "excess"Examples and Observations:
- "Ladies and gentlemen, I've been to Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together."
(Kent Brockman, The Simpsons) - "Kingsley fell over. And this was no brisk trip or tumble. It was an act of colossal administration. First came a kind of slow-leak effect, giving me the immediate worry that Kingsley, when fully deflated, would spread out into the street on both sides of the island, where there were cars, trucks, sneezing buses. Next, as I grabbed and tugged, he felt like a great ship settling on its side: would it right itself, or go under? Then came an impression of overall dissolution and the loss of basic physical coherence. I groped around him, looking for places to shore him up, but every bit of him was falling, dropping, seeking the lowest level, like a mudslide."
(Martin Amis, describing his father) - "O for the gift of Rostand's Cyrano to invoke the vastness of that nose alone as it cleaves the giant screen from east to west, bisects it from north to south. It zigzags across our horizon like a bolt of fleshy lightning."
(John Simon, review of Barbra Streisand in A Star Is Born, 1976) - "If we're going to start crucifying people for hyperbole in this society, there's going to be a long line. If I were writing a diet book, I wouldn't say, 'It's going to take a lot of work and it'll be a pain in the butt.' I'd say, 'Thin thighs in 30 days!'"
(Matthew Lesko. The Week, August 3, 2007)
Pronunciation: hi-PURR-buh-lee
Also Known As: overstatement, exuperatio
