Guide to Literary Terms Hyperbole

Hyperbole - obvious and deliberate exaggeration or an extravagant statement. It is a figure of speech not intended to be taken literally since it is exaggeration for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbole is a common poetic and dramatic device.

The word is from the Greek huperbole, meaning “overshooting” which was derived from huperballein, meaning “to throw beyond” or “to exceed.”

The device was common in Tudor and Jacobean drama and is an essential part of burlesque. Shakespeare used it in Antony and Cleopatra when Cleopatra praises the dead Antony:

His legs bestrid the ocean; his reared arm
Crested the world . . . .
Act V, scene ii : lines 82 – 83

Hyperbole is consistently used in everyday speech, such as when saying, “I’m freezing.” when you are cold.

see: bombast, irony