logo

hyperbole

What Is Hyperbole? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Hyperbole Definition

Hyperbole (hi-PURR-boh-lee), from the ancient Greek huperbolē, “to throw beyond,” is a quantitative or qualitative exaggeration used for dramatic, poetic, or humorous effect. It’s a common figure of speech that adds flavor to writing. Writers use it to engage readers with humor or catch them off-guard with an unbelievable image.

Examples of Hyperbole

To create hyperbole, start with a plain and true statement, then expand until it is no longer plausible. Consider this example:

Fatima is hungry—really hungry—and her favorite snack is wheat crackers. She might tell a friend, “I’m so hungry, I could eat the entire cracker aisle at the supermarket!” Obviously she’s exaggerating; not even a competitive eater could eat an entire aisle of food. Fatima is simply trying to get her friend to understand that she is much hungrier than usual.

Some hyperbole is so prevalent in everyday speech, people might no longer recognize it:

  • “Our professor is older than dirt.”
  • “This backpack weighs a ton.”
  • “This is the best day ever.”
  • “I was in line at the RMV forever.”

Hyperbole and Other Figures of Speech

Hyperbole vs. Simile

A simile is a figure of speech base on comparison, whereas hyperbole is based on exaggeration. To say that someone is like a saint is simile; saying they are more patient than a saint is hyperbole.

Hyperbole vs. Litotes

While hyperbole makes a mountain out of a molehill, litotes understate a position by contradicting the opposite stance. While taking a delicious sip of coffee in a new cafe, one might declare that it’s “not too bad.” That’s litotes. Saying the coffee is “the sweet nectar of the gods” is hyperbole.

Hyperbole vs. Meiosis

Where hyperbole exaggerates, meiosis minimizes. Meiosis diminishes the gravity or severity of something, either satirically, politically, or even affectionately. Referring to an unplanned pregnancy as a “surprise” or a war as a “conflict” are examples of meiosis.

Hyperbole vs. Idiom

Idioms are like hyperboles; both are phrases that shouldn’t be taken literally. For example, saying it’s “raining cats and dogs” doesn’t mean four-legged friends are actually falling from the sky. Most English-speaking people understand this means the rain is heavy. Despite the overstatement, this idiom is not an exaggeration because it has a meaning outside its actual words. With hyperbole, statements make sense; they are simply blown out of proportion. So, saying “It’s raining so hard, we need an ark,” which evokes the biblical story of Noah, would be hyperbole.

Examples of Hyperbole in Literature

1. Bhartrihari, “A Man May Tear a Jewel”

Composed in Sanskrit, this short but dense poem uses superhuman exaggerations to illustrate how difficult it is to change the mind of an ignorant person who believes they are right:

A man may tear a jewel
From a sea monster’s jaws,
Cross a tumultuous sea
Of raging tides,
Or twine garlandwise
A wrathful serpent on his head.
But no man can alter
The thoughts of an obstinate fool.

According to the poet, one would have an easier time fighting a sea monster for a treasure or wrapping an aggressive snake around their head than convincing someone that they’re wrong.

2. William Shakespeare, Macbeth

After killing King Duncan in Act II, Scene 2, Macbeth realizes there is no way to absolve himself of his sin:

Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No. This my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.

The guilt makes Macbeth feel as though his hands will never again be clean—a hyperbolic sentiment in itself. He emphasizes this by saying that if he attempted to “wash his hands,” he would turn the green sea red. This powerful hyperbole, which marks the apex of the play’s rising action, underlines the guilt and disgust Macbeth experiences after killing King Duncan.

3. Judith Ortiz Cofer, “Quinceañera”

In this poem about navigating puberty, family, and society’s expectations of womanhood, Cofer uses vibrant imagery and figurative language to convey her discomfort and confusion:

…                                       My hair
has been nailed back with my mother’s
black hairpins to my skull. Her hands
stretched my eyes open as she twisted
braids into a tight circle at the nape
of my neck.                                    …

In this stanza, Cofer describes her mother’s hairstyling technique as nailing the hair to her skull. Obviously hyperbolic, Cofer is conveying how uncomfortable the application of hairpins and braiding of her hair feels.

4. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

In his (in)famous novella, Conrad seems to praise and criticize imperialism at once. After 30 days at sea, Marlow, Conrad’s narrator/protagonist, encounters a group of Africans who have worked themselves sick to build a railroad and have been left for dead.

I had to wait in the station for ten days—an eternity.

While 10 days is much shorter than an eternity, Conrad is using hyperbole to describe his protagonist’s discomfort. Perhaps Marlow, a willing participant in exploitative colonialism, feels guilty when seeing this system in action. Thus, his time at the station seems to drag on.

5. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five

This intensely dark comedy is based on the author’s real experiences in World War II. Vonnegut was interned in Dresden, Germany, and survived the city’s bombing, which killed around 25,00 civilians.

There was a fire-storm out there. Dresden was one big flame. The one flame ate everything organic, everything that would burn.
It wasn’t safe to come out of the shelter until noon the next day. When the Americans and their guards did come out, the sky was black with smoke. The sun was an angry little pinhead. Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals. The stones were hot. Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead.

It almost seems strange to call this hyperbole, as 90 percent of the city’s center was destroyed. However, Dresden wasn’t a literal “big flame,” and the sky, while darkened by smoke, likely wasn’t entirely blacked out. Vonnegut is using exaggeration to help the readers understand how intense and horrifying that moment was.

Further Resources on Hyperbole

Learn about the rich, colorful hyperbole of “the dozens” (aka “your mama” jokes) in Talking ‘Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap by Elijah Wald.

Check out “What Is Hyperbole?” from the YouTube channel Flocabulary, which uses cute cartoons and catchy hip-hop music to educate viewers about literary terms.

Christian Burgers’s article “HIP: A Method for Linguistic Hyperbole Identification in Discourse” proposes a test to determine whether or not a figure of speech is hyperbolic.