A hyperbole is a figure of speech that deliberately exaggerates a part of your statement to bring it under spotlight. They’re used mainly for emphasizing a point and highlighting difference between two things.
This post covers more than 100 examples of hyperbole categorized under increasing level of difficulty: beginner to advanced.
More resources on hyperbole:
While going through the examples that follow, pay attention to how the hyperbole exaggerates. My comments that go with examples are in square brackets.
Beginner-level hyperboles
Kids and other beginners can start with writing hyperboles that require absolute words such as most, best, worst, none, never, all, always, everything, and so on, which almost always exaggerate the situation. In the examples below, absolute words that make the sentence a hyperbole have been highlighted.
1. He is always on his mobile. [Comment: One can’t be always on phone.]
2. This is the funniest joke I’ve ever heard. [In rare case, it could be, but mostly it’ll be an exaggeration.]
3. He knows everything about Covid-19.
4. He never stopped complaining about his workplace.
5. There can’t be anything cuter than this cat.
6. This is the easiest exam in the world.
7. It’s the best day of my life.
8. This is the best restaurant in the world.
9. New York City never sleeps.
10. The two hours I spent watching that movie were the worst two hours of my life.
11. At one point, the longest ever tennis match, played between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, seemed that it would never end.
12. Novak Djokovic was invincible in Grand Slams in 2021.
13. You and Scully seem to have no meeting point, much like parallel lines.
14. Little Truman had a voice so high it could only be detected by a bat. Tennessee Williams on Truman Capote
15. Goodness is the only investment that never fails. Henry David Thoreau
16. A flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
17. A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use. Washington Irving
Intermediate-level hyperboles
Such hyperboles can be written by stretching the attribute you want to hyperbolize to ridiculous level. Examples:
18. While making the omelette, I puffed it so much that it hit the ceiling. [Ordinarily, the omelette would’ve puffed few centimeters. You stretch this attribute to a ridiculous height.]
19. Kids are so overloaded these days. Just look at their bags; they weigh a ton. [Regular bags weigh in kilograms, but here the weight has been stretched to a ridiculous level, a ton.]
20. He has ice in his veins. [Coolness has been stretched to ice.]
21. He hit the ball so hard that it landed on moon.
22. She can pull off complex multiplications in a blink. [Anyone would normally take at least few minutes to pull off complex multiplications, but here the time taken has been stretched to just a blink.]
23. You speak so loudly. You can be heard from miles.
24. I’ve so much to study for the exam. It’ll take years to finish.
25. The AC’s cold blast froze my blood.
26. The car cost me millions.
27. We should be partners for the next seven lives.
28. The meeting went on for what seemed like an eternity.
29. The new rules are taking forever to complete.
30. I had to finally switch off the fan as it threatened to blow me away. [Blowing papers has been stretched to blowing a person.]
31. Your decrepit furniture seems to be from Jurassic era. [A decade or two has been stretched to millions of years.]
32. The child cried a river and drowned the place. [Tears have been stretched to a river.]
33. I tried golf thousand times, but in the end, I couldn’t learn it.
34. I was scared to death.
35. He stared through my soul.
36. My new shoes, little bit tight, are killing me. [Discomfort has been stretched to killing.]
37. Your gaming laptop seems to be worth its weight in gold.
38. I’m dead tired; I can sleep for days.
39. I called you thousand times yesterday, but because you didn’t pick up, I cancelled my plan.
40. I know every line of the novel; I’ve read it hundred times.
41. I could smell freshly-baked apple pie from miles.
42. I’m dying of hunger.
43. I searched every corner of the city to find you.
44. There are thousand reasons why our trains are rarely on time.
45. We’re meeting after ages.
46. I’ve walked thousand miles to meet you.
47. Come on, get up! Even a 5-year-old would. You aren’t hurt as bad as you think.
48. Quick! I’ve million other things to do.
49. I’ll die without you.
Advanced-level hyperboles
You can write advanced hyperboles by replacing the stretched attribute we saw in intermediate-level hyperboles with an unlike thing. The more striking and imaginative your unlike thing is, the better your hyperbole is. Examples:
50. There are more reasons to get vaccinated against Covid virus than the number of people who died because of the virus.
[An intermediate-level version of this hyperbole would be: There are thousand reasons to get vaccinated against Covid virus. The advanced-level hyperbole compares number of reasons with an unlike thing – number of people who died because of the virus – and requires bit more thinking than stretching 4-5 reasons to thousand. Note that the fundamental of stretching to a ridiculous level holds in advanced-level hyperboles as well.]
51. Your smile is more infectious than Covid virus. [Infectiousness of Covid virus is strikingly different from infectiousness of smile.]
52. He ran faster than cheetah to fetch wine from the nearby grocery store. [This isn’t a particularly good hyperbole because comparing a human runner with cheetah has been overused. In other words, comparison isn’t very striking.]
53. She is as lean as a toothpick. [This too has been overused, and hence it’s not a good one.]
54. You sneezed so loudly that the vase on the table shook.
55. You’ve the memory of a wild elephant.
56. Your smelly socks can kill a rat.
57. On hearing the result, I was motionless as a corpse.
58. He talks like a bullet train.
59. I would prefer Titanic to this helicopter. [This one is a paraphrase from the movie Mysterious Island. The helicopter looked well past its utility.]
60. Your mouth smells like the mouth of a carnivore.
61. The spot on your collar is as big as an island on Amazon.
62. The mole on your forearm is bigger than a saucer.
63. You can beat a photocopier at copying assignments in both speed and resemblance.
64. The manager then exploded like dozen hand grenades, giving piece of his mind to those present. [You could’ve also stretched the manager’s explosive outburst to a nuclear bomb or a volcano.]
65. She is so slim that she can pass through the eye of a needle.
66. You drive more recklessly than a man drunk on a bottle of whiskey.
67. Monkeys, which seem to be as abundant as salt in the sea, have been a menace in this town.
68. It’s difficult to get rid of cockroaches. They’re as many as stars in the galaxy.
69. I couldn’t eat the meal because it was as cold as an iron rod in freezing winter.
70. You’re as ageless as the redwood trees in California.
71. My phone rang with what seemed like police siren.
72. To be in time for the show, he drove faster than a Formula-1 race car.
73. The journalists fired rapid-fire questions at the Governor like a machine gun.
74. Your necklace sparkles brighter than the sun.
75. My school band was as famous as the Beatles in 60s.
76. The car has gotten so hot that I can make an omelette on the bonnet.
77. This smoothie is used oil compared to the smoothie you make.
78. He is like a grenade with the pin pulled, ready to go off any time.
79. I felt as lonely in the new city as Lystrosaurus felt more than 250 million years ago when almost everything died on the planet.
80. You leave a mile-wide trail of personal data on the internet for advertisers to exploit. [An intermediate-level version of this hyperbole would be: You leave a bazillion amount of personal data on the internet for advertisers to exploit.]
81. His song was so jarring that it shattered windowpanes. [A less striking hyperbole would be: His song was so jarring that everyone left the room.]
82. Surprise quiz in this course is as inevitable as death.
83. The food was so delicious that I almost ate my fingers.
84. Your expressions during the play were as animated as a suit on a hanger.
85. His voice was so melodious that we dozed off.
86. In these clothes, you’re looking like a monkey in dinner jacket.
87. His joke was as gross as a cockroach in soup.
88. During probation period, I felt like a bug under the microscope.
89. I felt as abandoned as a used Kleenex.
90. You’re such a chatterbox that even walls get tired listening to you. [A beginner-level version of this hyperbole would be: You’re such a chatterbox that no one wants to listen to you.]
91. The size of serving in your restaurant is like serving a mouse to a hungry lion.
92. You dance worse than popcorn in a machine.
93. The fun & frolic was as boisterous as the stormy sea.
94. It was so cold that even polar bears were shivering.
95. I nearly died laughing.
96. The leaping catch by the fielder took my breath away.
97. She was so mad that she was spitting fire.
98. Your handwriting seems to be the walk of an ant with its legs dipped in ink.
99. The commander’s shout to his unit shook the earth.
100. Your oversized skirt can be used as a tent.
101. It’s so hot here. I feel as if I’m in an oven.
