Hyperbole
Deliberate exaggeration for effect — not meant to be taken literally.
Hyperbole is the rhetorical figure of deliberate exaggeration. The point is not literal truth but emotional truth: 'I've told you a million times' overstates the count to convey the speaker's exhaustion.
Hyperbole is so common in everyday speech that we barely notice it. In literature and oratory, it is used more deliberately: Shakespeare's lovers swear 'till the seas gang dry'; Cyrano's nose is described in five competing flights of exaggeration.
The risk of hyperbole is inflation. If every product is the best, every moment is unforgettable, and every loss is the worst ever, the words stop doing any work.
“I've told you a million times not to exaggerate.”
Keep reading the glossary
A figure of speech that describes one thing as if it were another.
A comparison that uses 'like' or 'as' — 'my love is like a red, red rose'.
The art of persuasive speaking and writing — the discipline behind every great quoted line.
Aristotle's three modes of persuasion — character, emotion, and reason.