The 50 Best-Ever Examples of Hyperbole
Updated: Mar. 28, 2022
Are you sitting down? These examples of hyperbole are the bomb!
Hyperbole, the exaggerated statements that aren’t meant to be taken literally, have spiced up the English language for eons. Shakespeare used them to poetically bring his words to life. (In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo utters of Juliet, “The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars…”) Advertisers and marketers have been leaning on the power of hyperbole since the dawn of time (think your local diner touting “the world’s best coffee!”) In our daily lives, hyperbole adds a conversational urgency that’s a mainstay of the way we communicate. Here are 50 of the most common hyperbolic phrases uttered from sea to shining sea!
1. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.
2. She’s as old as the hills.
3. I walked a million miles to get here.
4. She can hear a pin drop a mile away.
5. I died of embarrassment.
6. He’s as skinny as a toothpick.
7. She’s as tall as a beanpole.
8. It’s raining cats and dogs.
Take note of these grammar myths your English teacher lied to you about.
9. His brain’s the size of a pea.
10. New York is the city that never sleeps.
11. I have a ton of papers to grade.
12. That runner’s faster than the speed of lightning.
13. My parents are going to kill me when they find out.
14. That was the easiest quiz in the world.
15. I’m dying of starvation, when’s dinner?
16. That documentary went on forever.
17. Our car cost us an arm and a leg.
18. It’s so hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk.
19. She was so mad she was spitting bullets.
20. She’s so sweet you could get a cavity from talking to her.
21. I was so ashamed, the earth swallowed me up.
22. I’m so excited, I could die!
23. I’ve told you a million times, pick up your dirty socks.
24. She knocked it out of the park with that speech.
25. He has the memory of an elephant.
26. He’s high as a kite.
27. That book is a real doorstopper.
28. It took forever to find you.
Find these hyperbole examples entertaining? Check out these things you might have been saying wrong your whole life.
29. I had to walk to the ends of the Earth to find it!
30. I can’t live without you.
31. I’m thirsty as a camel.
32. I got my math test back and it was dipped in blood.
33. I love you to the moon and back.
34. She walks as slow as a turtle.
35. It’s a jungle out there.
36. I haven’t seen them in ages.
37. I thought that lecture would never end.
38. It’s been raining for 40 days and 40 nights.
39. She eats like a bird.
40. That turkey could feed an army!
41. He runs like the wind!
42. It’s the worst day of my entire life!
43. I’ve seen that movie a thousand times.
44. This booze-free town is dry as a desert.
45. We’re never gonna get there!
46. I’m drowning in work.
47. He talks a mile a minute.
48. I’m so tired I could sleep for a million years.
49. It’s all fake news!
50. The whole world is going to hell in a handbasket.
If you love hyperbole, check out 18 of the funniest hyperbole examples that’ll make you laugh out loud!
