Meaning & use
hyperbolic
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Deliberately exaggerated for effect and not meant to be taken literally.
Grammar: Describes language: hyperbolic claims.
Patterns
- hyperbolic language
- hyperbolic claim
The advertisement made hyperbolic claims about the cream.
His hyperbolic praise embarrassed the team.
Calling a small delay a disaster is hyperbolic.
adjectivebefore a nounmathematics
Relating to a hyperbola, the open curve formed by cutting a cone, or to a function related to it.
Grammar: Mathematical sense: hyperbolic function.
Patterns
- hyperbolic function
The students plotted a hyperbolic curve.
Sinh and cosh are hyperbolic functions.
Hyperbolic geometry differs from ordinary plane geometry.
Word forms
| comparative | more hyperbolic |
|---|---|
| superlative | most hyperbolic |
Common combinations
- hyperbolic language
- Hyperbolic language is common in advertising.
- hyperbolic claim
- The company made hyperbolic claims.
- hyperbolic function
- The hyperbolic function was graphed.
- hyperbolic rhetoric
- Politicians sometimes use hyperbolic rhetoric.
- hyperbolic geometry
- Hyperbolic geometry is a non-Euclidean system.
Synonyms and how they differ
- exaggerated
- A general word for stretching the truth, whereas hyperbolic suggests a deliberate figure of speech.
- overblown
- Suggests something made to seem more important than it is, often with criticism.
- inflated
- Describes claims or prices made larger than they should be.
- extravagant
- Describes excess, in speech or spending.
Opposites
Word family
- hyperbole noun
- deliberate exaggeration
- hyperbola noun
- a type of curve in mathematics
- hyperbolically adverb
- in an exaggerated way
Commonly confused: hyperbolic or parabolic?
hyperbolic vs parabolic
Parabolic relates to a parabola, a different curve, and in speech parabolic means told as a parable.
Practice
Saying that you have told someone a million times to clean up is best described as:
Choose one answer.
Hyperbolic means deliberately exaggerated. A million times is not meant literally.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hyperbolic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.