hyperbole

noun [haɪˈpɝbəˌli]

pronunciation

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary via pipeline/ipa-en.mjs (hyperbole HH AY0 P ER1 B AH0 L IY2 → haɪˈpɝbəˌli); confirm at review, open source

Hyperbole names a trope of open scale stretch (I waited forever, a thousand times I told you), next to litotes and metaphor, unlike bare lying.

source

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Definitions

ling. / rhet. Rhetorical figure: speech openly overstates or understates scale against reality (I waited forever, I am starving, a thousand times I told you). Axis: evident exaggeration inside the trope, not a factual fault and not litotes as the opposite scale move.

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hist. lex. Webster 1913 prints HYPERBOLE (stress Hy*per\"bo*le) as evident exaggeration, and HYPERBOLA as the conic. Skeat 1910: HYPERBOLE (L., Gk.), Gk. ὑπερβολή (excess, exaggeration) from ὑπέρ (beyond) and βάλλειν (to throw, cast); doublet hyperbola. Arct 1921: Hiperbola (przesadnia; curve). Brückner 1927: no card.

source
Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (HYPERBOLE Hy*per\"bo*le; HYPERBOLA); W. W. Skeat 1910 (HYPERBOLE; ὑπερβολή; ὑπέρ; βάλλειν; doublet hyperbola); M. Arct 1921 (Hiperbola; Hiperbolicznie); A. Brückner 1927 (no hiperbola), open source
hist. / ety. Build: through Latin from Greek. Skeat keeps ὑπερβολή from ὑπέρ (beyond) and βάλλειν (to throw, cast). Webster marks HYPERBOLE (L., fr. Gr.) and keeps HYPERBOLA as a mathematical doublet. Polish hiperbola covers both the rhetorical and the geometric sense under one lemma.

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Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (HYPERBOLE: L., fr. Gr.; HYPERBOLA); W. W. Skeat 1910 (HYPERBOLE; ὑπερβολή; ὑπέρ; βάλλειν); M. Arct 1921 (Hiperbola), open source
colloq. Casual speech may dump any overstatement under this tag or under bare lying. This card keeps one rhetorical axis: evident scale stretch inside a figure, next to the mathematical doublet hyperbola on a separate English headword.

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Examples

I waited forever is textbook hyperbole (open scale stretch in the trope); a neighbour wrongly slotted litotes into the same drill.

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The morning session drilled rhetorical hyperbole; conic-section notes covered hyperbola, and litotes returned as a separate scale trope after lunch.

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Reading list: Webster 1913 for HYPERBOLE (Hy*per\"bo*le) and HYPERBOLA, Skeat 1910 for ὑπερβολή from ὑπέρ and βάλλειν, Arct 1921 for Hiperbola (przesadnia and curve), Brückner 1927 (gap at hiperbola).

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Treating every hyperbole as bare lying erased the open-trope-versus-deceit split at once.

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Board order: hyperbole, litotes, metaphor, lying, so the scale-stretch trope stayed apart from understatement, from likeness transfer, and from deceit.

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Usage

Casual notes may brand any overstatement as hyperbole with no named axis. Seminar work peels layers: open scale stretch inside the trope (I waited forever, a thousand times), litotes as foil, the border with metaphor, plus open-book lexicon notes. Webster keeps HYPERBOLE with stress Hy*per\"bo*le and a separate HYPERBOLA card. Skeat derives ὑπερβολή from ὑπέρ and βάλλειν and marks the doublet hyperbola. Arct indexes Hiperbola with przesadnia and the curve. Brückner offers no Polish card. Without those layers only a hollow slogan about exaggeration remains.

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Open-book record: the 1913 Webster shows HYPERBOLE with primary stress on bo and describes a figure of evident exaggeration; HYPERBOLA stands apart as a conic. Skeat 1910 indexes HYPERBOLE (L., Gk.) with Gk. ὑπερβολή (excess, exaggeration), members ὑπέρ (beyond) and βάλλειν (to throw, cast), and the doublet hyperbola. Arct 1921 carries Hiperbola (rhetoric: przesadnia; geometry: curve) and Hiperbolicznie (przesadnie; OCR: Hiperbolicznle). Brückner 1927 leaves hiperbola out. Facts here; derivation under etymology.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (HYPERBOLE; HYPERBOLA); W. W. Skeat 1910 (HYPERBOLE; ὑπερβολή); M. Arct 1921 (Hiperbola); A. Brückner 1927 (absent), open source

Scholarly English marks evident exaggeration inside a figure. Careful writers reject worksheets that treat every trope as lying and reject glosses that never name the scale stretch. The hyperbole / litotes border remains debated in seminars. Chronology of the label stays blank until a primary page appears. Polish counterpart: hiperbola (one lemma for rhetoric and geometry).

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Classrooms revisit scale-stretch talk in tropes and set hyperbole against litotes, metaphor, rhetoric, and semantics. Field adjective: hyperbolic (CMUdict has hyperbole and hyperbolic). Mathematical doublet: hyperbola (CMUdict present). Polish hiperbola sits in SGJP. Already live: metaphor, oxymoron, irony, metonymy, synecdoche, rhetoric, semantics, synonym, antonym, polysemy. Without the open-exaggeration axis the tag collapses.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (HYPERBOLE); CMUdict (hyperbole, hyperbola, hyperbolic present); SGJP / Morfeusz 2 (hiperbola present); M. Arct 1921 (Hiperbola), open source

Word forms

Scholarly countable or mass in notes: one hyperbole, many hyperboles (or mass hyperbole). Adjective in notes: hyperbolic (CMUdict: hyperbole and hyperbolic present). Mathematical doublet: hyperbola.

forms in use

przypadek	forma
singular	hyperbole
plural	hyperboles
adjective	hyperbolic (CMUdict present)
math. doublet	hyperbola (CMUdict present)

Word forms: Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (HYPERBOLE; HYPERBOLA; HYPERBOLIC); CMUdict (hyperbole, hyperbola, hyperbolic present) · source

Collocations

rhetorical hyperbole

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hyperbolic style

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hyperbole versus litotes

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open exaggeration in the trope

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distinguish hyperbole from lying

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Synonyms · Antonyms

Synonyms overstatement figure (loose descriptive neighbour; check scope at review), hyperbolic trope (approximation; check scope at review), hiperbola (Polish counterpart; SGJP present; Arct: przesadnia; check scope at review)

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Antonyms litotes / understatement (scale contrast: lowering instead of raising; check scope at review), literal naming without a trope (contextual contrast; not a clean antonym of the label alone), lying as deceit (contrast neighbour: intent to deceive, not open trope exaggeration; check at review)

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Etymology

The English noun joins Greek ὑπερβολή from ὑπέρ and βάλλειν. Webster 1913 prints HYPERBOLE (L., fr. Gr.) with stress Hy*per\"bo*le and keeps HYPERBOLA as a geometric doublet. In Skeat (1910) the HYPERBOLE card cites L. hyperbolé and Gk. ὑπερβολή (excess, exaggeration), then ὑπέρ (beyond) and βάλλειν (to throw, cast), and marks the doublet hyperbola. Arct (9th ed., 1921) carries Hiperbola with rhetoric przesadnia and the geometric curve, plus Hiperbolicznie (przesadnie). Brückner 1927 skips a Polish lemma. We do not copy dictionary wording. Polish counterpart: hiperbola.

source

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (HYPERBOLE: Hy*per\"bo*le; L., fr. Gr.; HYPERBOLA), open source

also

W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910 (HYPERBOLE: L. hyperbolé; Gk. ὑπερβολή excess, exaggeration; ὑπέρ beyond; βάλλειν to throw, cast; doublet hyperbola), open source

also

M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921 (Hiperbola: rhetoric przesadnia; geometry curve; Hiperbolicznie: przesadnie), open source

also

A. Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, Kraków 1927 (no hiperbola), open source

Related words

hyperbolic , field adjective (CMUdict: hyperbole and hyperbolic present)
hyperbola , mathematical doublet (Skeat; Webster HYPERBOLA; CMUdict present)
metaphor , foil along the likeness axis; EN pair already live
oxymoron , trope neighbour (contrary pair); EN pair already live
irony , trope neighbour; EN pair already live
metonymy , contiguity neighbour; EN pair already live
synecdoche , part-whole trope neighbour; EN pair already live
rhetoric , domain of tropes; EN pair already live
semantics , sense and transfer neighbour; EN pair already live
polysemy , several linked senses in one unit; EN pair already live
synonym , near-sense unit without a trope axis; EN pair already live
antonym , opposed-sense unit (in the lexicon, not inside one trope); EN pair already live
hiperbola , Polish counterpart (SGJP present; Arct: Hiperbola; covers rhetoric and geometry)

Related entries

The same entry in Polish: hiperbola

Questions and answers

What does hyperbole mean?

It names a trope where speech openly stretches scale (I waited forever, a thousand times). Litotes is the opposite scale move. Lying is deceit, not a figure. Hyperbola is the mathematical doublet.

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Where does the word hyperbole come from?

From Greek through Latin. Skeat 1910: HYPERBOLE from Gk. ὑπερβολή (excess, exaggeration), ὑπέρ (beyond) and βάλλειν (to throw, cast); doublet hyperbola. Webster 1913: HYPERBOLE (L., fr. Gr.). Arct 1921: Hiperbola (przesadnia; curve). Brückner 1927 stays quiet.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (HYPERBOLE); W. W. Skeat 1910 (ὑπερβολή; ὑπέρ; βάλλειν); M. Arct 1921 (Hiperbola); A. Brückner 1927 (absent), open source

How is hyperbole pronounced, and which forms belong with it?

CMUdict HH AY0 P ER1 B AH0 L IY2 yields /haɪˈpɝbəˌli/ (pipeline/ipa-en.mjs). Forms: hyperbole, hyperboles, hyperbolic; math. doublet hyperbola. Confirm at review.

source

Editorial team; facts: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary via pipeline/ipa-en.mjs (hyperbole HH AY0 P ER1 B AH0 L IY2); Webster 1913 (HYPERBOLE Hy*per\"bo*le), open source

How does hyperbole differ from litotes and lying, and does Polish hiperbola match?

Hyperbole: open scale stretch in the figure. Litotes: understatement. Lying: deceit. Polish hiperbola matches the rhetorical sense and also covers the geometric curve under one lemma (SGJP present). Notes draw borders; casual speech blurs them.

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