hyperbole

noun
/haɪˈpɜːbəli/UK/haɪˈpɝbəli/US

Etymology

From Middle English iperbole, yperbole, from Latin hyperbolē, from Ancient Greek ὑπερβολή (huperbolḗ, “excess, exaggeration”), from ὑπέρ (hupér, “above”) + βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-). Doublet of hyperbola.

  1. derived from *gʷelH-
  2. derived from ὑπερβολή
  3. derived from hyperbolē
  4. inherited from iperbole

Definitions

  1. Deliberate or unintentional overstatement, particularly extreme overstatement.

    • Hyperbole soars too high, or creeps too low, Exceeds the truth, things wonderful to shew.
    • The great staircase, however, may be termed, without much hyperbole, a feature of grandeur and magnificence.
    • "Nay, nay, good Sumach," interrupted the Deerslayer, whose love of truth was too indomitable to listen to such hyperbole, with patience[…]
  2. An instance or example of such overstatement.

    • […]and when he ſpeakes, / 'Tis like a Chime a mending. With tearmes vnſquar' / Which from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropt, / Would ſeemes Hyperboles
  3. A hyperbola.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at hyperbole. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01hyperbole02unintentional03deliberate04slow05quick06rapidity07hyperbolic

A definitional loop anchored at hyperbole. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at hyperbole

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA