Hyperbole is exaggerating for a purpose – it is not meant to be taken literally and it's used to emphasise a point. In his poem Sounds of the Day, Norman MacCaig describes the end of a relationship.

The problem is this: listeners don’t know what to think when a leader tells a story that is a gross exaggeration (hyperbole) or worse, a falsehood. Most often, the leader (writer) knows their ...

I tell ya, I’m tryin’, dear friends. I’m struggling here not to engage in hyperbole. But I don’t know what else to call these people besides political commissars. And again, they report to ...