Home > Hyperbole

See also hyperbola, parabola, ellipse, parable, ellipsis.

A hyperbole, largely synonymous with exaggeration and overstatement, is a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated or extravagant. It implies strong feelings or is used to create a strong impression and is not meant to be taken literally.

Examples:

• "He is as big as a house!"
• "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!"
• "That's the worst idea in the world."

The opposite is an understatement, e.g. " Hitler was not a nice person."

In show business, hyperbole (known as hype or media hype) is the practice of spending money on public relations in an attempt to bolster public interest in (for example) a movie, television show, or performing artist. Often the entertainment value of the thing being hyped is exaggerated.

1 See also

• Irony
• Litotes
• Movie marketing
• Quote whoreQuote whore or blurb whore is a clearly pejorative term used by some movie reviewers (for example, Roger Ebert) to describe other reviewers (who provide reviews of movies before the movies are released), whose reviews are uniformly positive. Such reviews
• Technology hypeTechnology hype is unjustified, excessive discussion and usage of a technology or concept. Hype (or hyperbole) is a common marketing technique in the information technology industry and other technology industries. Hype can also sometimes be created spont
• ZillionFollowing the pattern of naming large multiples of ten (as in million, billion, trillion, etc. zillion is an indefinite large number used in exaggeration: That car must have cost a zillion dollars An adjective derived from zillion is zillionth''. Zillion"

2 External link

• A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples