Home › Glossary › Letter H

Hyperbole

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A rhetorical device using intentional and obvious exaggeration—not meant to be taken literally—to heighten emotion, humor, or dramatic effect.

Detailed Definition
Hyperbole is a rhetorical exaggeration used for emphasis or emotional effect, not meant to be taken literally (e.g., “I’ve told you a million times”); in poetry, it intensifies feeling, creates humor, or underscores the sublime, as in John Donne’s claim that lovers’ sighs drown armies.
Example
Example in poetry:
Hyperbole: “I’ve told you a million times!” exaggerates frequency; “My love is deeper than the ocean” inflates emotion; “The suitcase weighed a ton” intensifies burden; “She cried an ocean of tears” amplifies grief; “This line is longer than the Great Wall” mocks delay; “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse” uses comic exaggeration
Additional Notes
Exaggeration for emphasis. "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse." Not meant literally. Related: overstatement, amplification. Opposite: understatement/litotes. Study: hyperbole's emotional truth.
Other Meanings of “Hyperbole”
Also Known As
Overstatement exaggeration
Skip to main content