Hyperbole: You’ve Heard a Billion of ‘Em! 

 

Hyperbole: Lesson Plan 

 
Topic  

A hyperbole is a figure of speech in which an exaggerated statement is made. This 

statement is not intended to be taken literally and quite often does not make sense if it 
is. People generally use hyperboles when they want to stress a particular point or when 
they want to convey an intense feeling.  

Possible subjects/classes  Time needed  

● English 
● Public Speaking / Debate  30-45 minutes 
● Politics 

Video link:  

https://academy4sc.org/topic/hyperbole-youve-heard-a-billion-of-em/ 

Objective: What will students know/be able to do at the end of class?  

By the end of this lesson students will be able to:  

● Define hyperbole 
● Identity and list examples of hyperboles 
● Explain the purpose hyperboles serve as a rhetorical tool and how to effectively 
use them 

Key Concepts & Vocabulary  

Hyperbole, exaggeration, figure of speech, overstatement  

Materials Needed 

N/A 

Before you watch  

Read, write, or project the following short story:  

 
Philip runs faster than the wind and passed his coach who’s as tall as a house. He 
spots Akira in the stand. Her smile is a mile wide. He grins back, even though he’s 
exhausted. It’s so hot Phillip can feel the turf burning through his shoes. This 
practice will never end, Phillip thinks to himself. 
 

Hyperbole: You’ve Heard a Billion of ‘Em! 

 
Turn & Talk  
Ask students to list overstatements that they spotted in the reading. Have them explain 
what these exaggerated statements mean (i.e. Saying “I’m as hungry as a horse” means 
that the speaker is famished, not that they could eat an actual trough’s worth of food). Be 
sure to stress that the literal meaning of these phrases makes little sense in the context 
of the story. 
 

While you watch  

Define hyperbole  
What is the purpose of using hyperbole in writing?  

After you watch/discussion questions  

1. Can you think of a common hyperbole you’ve recently used? 

2. When do you tend to use or see hyperboles used in your daily life? 

Activity Ideas  

1. Quick-write a story using as many hyperboles as possible 

2. Share  a  time  that  you  exaggerated  to  make  a  point?  What  effect  did  it 
have? Did it help or hurt you in getting your point across?  
3. Have students work in pairs to list as many understatements they can think of in 
three minutes. Discuss each group’s answers with the class. 
 

Sources/places to learn more  

1. Callister, Mark A. Ph.D. & Lesa A. Stern Ph.D. “The Role of Visual Hyperbole in 
Advertising Effectiveness”. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, vol 
29, issue 2, 2007, pp 1-14. doi:10.1080/10641734.2007.10505212 
2. Claridge, Claudia. Hyperbole in English: A Corpus-based Study of Exaggeration. 
Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-521-76635-7. 
3. Colston, L. Herbert and Shauna B. Keller. “You’ll Never Believe This: Irony and 
Hyperbole in Expressing Surprise”. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, vol 27, 
issue 4, July 19989, pp 499-513. doi: 10.1023/A:1023229304509. 
4. McCarthy, Michael and Ronald Carter. “‘There’s millions of them’: hyperbole in 
everyday conversation”. Journal of Pragmatics, vol 36, issue 2, February 2004, 
pp 149-184. doi: 10.1016/S0378-2166(03)00116-4. 
 

Hyperbole: You’ve Heard a Billion of ‘Em! 

 
5. Varga, Donna. “Hyperbole and Humor in Children’s Language Play”. Journal of 
Research in Childhood Education, vol 14, issue 2, 200, pp 142-151. doi: 
10.1080/02568540009594759 

*Note:  Hyperboles  can  be  presented  as  comparison  (i.e.  He’s  as  old  as  the  hills)  so 
students  might  have  trouble  telling  them  apart  from  similes  or  metaphors.  Hyperboles 
are  not  always  direct  comparisons,  whereas  similes  and  metaphors  are.  The  defining 
feature  of  a  hyperbole  is  that  it  is  an  exaggerated  statement  not  meant  to  be  taken 
literally. 
 
Similarly, students often have trouble differentiating a hyperbole and an idiom. The main 
difference is that idioms have a figurative meaning distinct from its literal meaning, which 
is why they can be tricky for non-native English speakers to master. Figuratively, saying 
that a math exam “was a piece of cake” means that it was not difficult to complete. Taken 
literally, however, one might interpret the test as having cake-like qualities - like tasting 
sweet. Encourage students to break the troubling statement apart word by word and see 
if they can still understand its meaning or if another, perhaps more nonsensical, meaning 
emerges.