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Hyperbole (Template:PronEng, from ancient Greek Template:Polytonic 'exaggeration'), is a rhetorical device in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally.

Hyperboles are figures of speech that are exaggerated in order to create emphasis or effect. Hyperbole is a literary device often used in poetry, and is frequently encountered in casual speech. On occasion, newspapers and other media use hyperbole when speaking of an accident, to increase the impact of the story. This is more often found in tabloid newspapers, which often exaggerate accounts of events to appeal to a wider audience.

In rhetoric, some opposites of hyperbole are meiosis, litotes, understatement, and bathos (the 'letdown' after a hyperbole in a phrase).

Examples

This section may contain excessive or irrelevant examples. Please help improve the article by adding descriptive text and removing less pertinent examples. (March 2010)

Some examples of the use of hyperbole include:

• These books weigh a ton. (These books are heavy.)
• The path went on forever. (The path was very long.)
• I'm doing a million things right now. (I'm busy.)
• I waited centuries for you. (I waited a long time for you.)
• She ran faster than a bullet. (She ran fast.)
• I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. (I am very hungry.)
• (Hyperbole, by its very nature, produces a distorted view for effect, the more distorted, the more effective:) No, Pope Ratzinger should not resign. He should remain in charge of the whole rotten edifice – the whole profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution – while it tumbles, amid a stench of incense and a rain of tourist-kitsch sacred hearts and preposterously crowned virgins, about his ears. - Richard Dawkins (The Catholic Church is suffering such problems of public relations that the Pope's continued tenure cannot hurt it.)

References

1. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
2. Damian Thompson, "Richard Dawkins: Pope Benedict is 'a leering old villain in a frock'", The Daily Telegraph, March 28th, 2010.

External links

• A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples
• Audio illustrations of hyperbole as figure of speech

• Articles with too many examples from March 2010
• Eccentricity
• Rhetorical techniques