hyperbole - Definitions from Dictionary.com

7 results for: hyperbole

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

hy·per·bo·le

Audio Help [hahy-pur-buh-lee] Pronunciation Key

–noun Rhetoric.

1.	obvious and intentional exaggeration.

2.	an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”

Compare litotes.

[Origin: 1520–30; < Gk hyperbol excess, exaggeration, throwing beyond, equiv. to hyper- hyper- + bol throw

]

—Synonyms 2. overstatement.

—Antonyms 2. understatement.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
hyperbole

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

hy·per·bo·le Audio Help (hī-pûr'bə-lē) Pronunciation Key
n. A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.

[Latin hyperbolē, from Greek huperbolē, excess, from huperballein, to exceed : huper, beyond; see hyper- + ballein, to throw; see g^welə- in Indo-European roots.]

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
hyperbole

1529, from L. hyperbole, from Gk. hyperbole "exaggeration, extravagance," from hyperballein "to throw over or beyond," from hyper- "beyond" + bol-, nom. stem of ballein "to throw." Rhetorical sense is found in Aristotle and Isocrates.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

hyperbole
noun
extravagant exaggeration

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
hyperbole [(heye-pur-buh-lee)]

An exaggerated, extravagant expression. It is hyperbole to say, “I'd give my whole fortune for a bowl of bean soup.”

[Chapter:] Conventions of Written English

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Hyperbole

Hy*per"bo*la\, n. [Gr. ?, prop., an overshooting, excess, i. e., of the angle which the cutting plane makes with the base. See Hyperbole.] (Geom.) A curve formed by a section of a cone, when the cutting plane makes a greater angle with the base than the side of the cone makes. It is a plane curve such that the difference of the distances from any point of it to two fixed points, called foci, is equal to a given distance. See Focus. If the cutting plane be produced so as to cut the opposite cone, another curve will be formed, which is also an hyperbola. Both curves are regarded as branches of the same hyperbola. See Illust. of Conic section, and Focus.

Dictionary.com Word of the Day Archive - Cite This Source - Share This

hyperbole

hyperbole was Word of the Day on January 9, 2001.

Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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