Hyperbole & understatement
Practice Flashcards
Flip to reveal answersWhat is hyperbole?
Track your progress — Sign up free to save your progress and get smart review reminders based on spaced repetition.
All 10 Flashcards — Hyperbole & understatement
Sign up free to track progress and get spaced-repetition review schedules.
Question
What is hyperbole?
Answer
Deliberate exaggeration, far past the literal truth, for effect.
Question
What is understatement?
Answer
Deliberately playing something down so it sounds smaller than it is.
Question
Give an example of hyperbole.
Answer
‘I've told you a million times.’
Question
Give an example of understatement.
Answer
Calling a deep cut ‘just a scratch’.
Question
How do you tell them apart?
Answer
Hyperbole makes something bigger; understatement makes it smaller.
Question
Why do writers use hyperbole?
Answer
To make a feeling land hard — stress, awe, frustration.
Question
Why do writers use understatement?
Answer
A huge thing made small can hit harder, or sound calm and controlled.
Question
Is hyperbole meant literally?
Answer
No — the gap from the truth is the point.
Question
How do you analyse understatement?
Answer
Name it, then the gap between the small words and the real size.
Question
Commonest mistake here?
Answer
Taking the exaggeration as fact instead of an effect.
Read the notes
Full study notes for Hyperbole & understatement
Topic 1.5 hub
Irony & meaning
More from Topic 1.5
All flashcards in this topic
English A Lang & Lit exam skills
Paper structures & tips
Track your progress with spaced repetition
Sign up free — Aimnova tells you exactly which cards to review and when, so you remember everything before your IB exam.
Start Free