Slova
Hyperbole is pronounced hy-PUR-buh-lee. It has four syllables with the stress on the second, PUR, and it ends in lee. It does not end like the word bowl. In British English the r in PUR is not said.
hyperbole
noun · a way of speaking that makes something sound much bigger, better or worse than it is
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/haɪˈpɝː.bəl.i/
hy
PURstressed
buh
lee
UK British English/haɪˈpɜː.bəl.i/
hy
PURstressed
buh
lee
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Tip. Four syllables with the stress on PUR. It ends in lee, not bowl.
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hyperbole
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What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say hy-PUR-buh-lee.
NotHY-per-bowl
Reading it as hyper plus bowl. The word has four syllables and ends in lee.
Nothy-per-BOH-lee
Stressing the third syllable. Stress PUR and keep buh light.
Nothy-PUR-bowl
The start is right, but the end is not bowl. Finish with buh-lee.
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
Saying I'd die without coffee is hyperbole.
The advert was full of hyperbole.
Don't take his hyperbole too seriously.
It looks like hyper plus bole, so many people read it as HY-per-bowl. But it is one Greek word, hyperbolē, meaning excess. It was built from hyper, beyond, and a verb meaning to throw.
Like epitome and catastrophe, it keeps its final e as a full syllable: lee. The first syllable is light, and the stress lands on PUR.
Watch the stress move in the adjective: hyperbolic is hy-per-BOL-ik, or hy-per-BAH-lik in American English. The maths word hyperbola comes from the same Greek word and sounds like the noun with uh at the end: hy-PUR-buh-luh.
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
In Slova you say new words out loud in every lesson, at your level, in lessons built around what you love.