hyperbole
/haɪˈpɜːbəli/ (bre, ipa) · /haɪˈpɜːrbəli/ (ame, ipa) · /hī-ˈpər-bə-(ˌ)lē/ (ame, mw)
hyperbole — noun
1. language that overstates how big, good, bad, or extreme something is, used for e
language that overstates how big, good, bad, or extreme something is, used for effect rather than to be taken literally.
Dahlia called the traffic jam "the worst in human history," which was obvious hyperbole.
obvious / pure / sheer hyperbole as a fixed pattern
The advert used hyperbole to claim the cream would erase ten years overnight.
use of hyperbole in advertising / marketing language
Tuan's review was full of hyperbole, calling the small café the best place on Earth.
Politicians often use hyperbole during elections to make their plans sound more dramatic.
Saying she had told him a million times to clean his room was clearly hyperbole.
- exaggeration
the everyday word; hyperbole is the formal / literary term for the same idea.
- overstatement
neutral; emphasises going beyond what is true rather than the rhetorical effect.
- embellishment
softer; suggests adding colourful detail rather than wild overstatement.
- understatement
deliberately making something sound smaller or less important than it is.
- litotes
formal rhetorical term for ironic understatement, often through double negatives.
文法句型
use of hyperbole
pure/sheer hyperbole
用法筆記
Usually uncountable when describing the rhetorical device in general ("full of hyperbole"); occasionally countable when referring to a specific exaggerated expression ("a hyperbole"). Subject is typically a speaker, writer, or text; common collocates are "use," "resort to," "full of," and "pure / sheer."