Praising your favorite sports team is one thing, but if you call the team the most incredible group of humans ever to walk the earth, then you're going overboard and indulging in hyperbole.

Pronunciation: /haɪ'pɝbəli/
English Description: language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense
Chinese Translation: 夸张(kua1 zhang1)
Spanish Translation: hipérbole
STORY: The hyper- in hyperbole means "beyond," so it's a good sign that the word has to do with going above and beyond what's necessary. Someone who gets hyperactive about something and ends up hyperventilating (breathing too hard) might be prone to the exaggerated style of speaking known as hyperbole. If you find yourself talking about the absolutely best (or worst) thing of all time, it's time to take it down a notch and cut down on the hyperbole.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

The state echoed those remarks and the governor has little fear of the hyperbole of highs and lows, of any mention of an oil bust.
That’s not to say that entertainment and hyperbole are missing in action - this is commercial TV, after all.

*New word description, story and part of "EXAMPLE SENTENCE" are cited in Vocabulary.com