hyperbole
noun
Simple meaning
A way of speaking that makes something sound much bigger or better.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hypurbuhleeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
haɪˈpɝbəli
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
uncountablerhetoricliterature
Deliberate or unintentional overstatement, particularly extreme overstatement.
countable
An instance or example of such overstatement.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (uncountable, rhetoric, literature) Deliberate or unintentional overstatement, particularly extreme overstatement.
Used this way, hyperbole is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: deliberate or unintentional overstatement or particularly extreme overstatement
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.