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Hyperbole vs Hyperbolism - What's the difference?

hyperbole | hyperbolism |

In uncountable terms the difference between hyperbole and hyperbolism

is that hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration while hyperbolism is the use of hyperbole.

In countable terms the difference between hyperbole and hyperbolism

is that hyperbole is an instance or example of this technique while hyperbolism is an instance of hyperbole.

hyperbole

Noun

(en noun)
  • (uncountable) Extreme exaggeration or overstatement; especially as a literary or rhetorical device.
  • (uncountable) Deliberate exaggeration.
  • (countable) An instance or example of this technique.
  • (countable, obsolete) A hyperbola.
  • Quotations

    {{timeline, 1600s=1602, 1800s=1837 1841 1843, 1900s=1910, 2000s=2001}} * 1602 — i 3 *: ...and when he speaks
    'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquar'd,
    Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd,
    Would seem hyperboles . * 1837 — *: The great staircase, however, may be termed, without much hyperbole , a feature of grandeur and magnificence. * 1841 — , ch. 28 *: "Nay - nay - good Sumach," interrupted Deerslayer, whose love of truth was too indomitable to listen to such hyperbole with patience. * 1843 — *: The honourable gentleman forces us to hear a good deal of this detestable rhetoric; and then he asks why, if the secretaries of the Nizam and the King of Oude use all these tropes and hyperboles , Lord Ellenborough should not indulge in the same sort of eloquence? * c.1910 — *: Of course the hymn has come to us from somewhere else, but I do not know from where; and the average native of our village firmly believes that it is indigenous to our own soil—which it can not be, unless it deals in hyperbole , for the nearest approach to a river in our neighborhood is the village pond. * 2001 - Tom Bentley, Daniel Stedman Jones, The Moral Universe *: The perennial problem, especially for the BBC, has been to reconcile the hyperbole -driven agenda of newspapers with the requirement of balance, which is crucial to the public service remit.

    Synonyms

    * overstatement * exaggeration

    Antonyms

    * meiosis * understatement

    Derived terms

    * hyperbolic

    See also

    * adynaton ----

    hyperbolism

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The use of hyperbole
  • (countable) An instance of hyperbole
  • (countable, geometry) A blow-up of a curve at a point.
  • Synonyms

    * exaggeration * overstatement