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How to pronounce hyperbole

Check hyperbole pronunciation with CMUdict sound tokens and stress, then practise two original sentences and download a voiceover audition worksheet.

The dictionary sound sequence

CMUdict lists this North American English pronunciation for hyperbole. Read each sequence from left to right. The numbers mark vowel stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

Dictionary variant 1

HH AY0 P ER1 B AH0 L IY2

Syllable estimate: 4 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position
Secondary stress: 4th vowel position

Check hyperbole in Merriam-Webster and listen to available dictionary audio.

Syllable counts come from vowel tokens; CMUdict does not supply syllable boundaries here. Variant order follows the dictionary and does not rank correctness. This lexicon does not represent every accent or context.

Use hyperbole in context

Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration used for effect, rather than a statement intended as a literal measurement. It appears in literary analysis, comedy discussion, and commentary about persuasive language. Narration should distinguish the exaggeration from the explanation without making every example sound like a joke.

Calling the queue endless was a piece of harmless hyperbole.
The essay uses hyperbole to reveal the speaker's impatience.

Read the sound tokens

Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of hyperbole. Unstressed vowels may sound reduced. These cues follow the CMU phoneme-set key (Appendix A).

HHsound in heconsonant

AYsound in hidevowel

Psound in peeconsonant

ERsound in hurtvowel

Bsound in beconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

Lsound in leeconsonant

IYsound in eatvowel

TAKE IT TO YOUR NEXT RECORDING

Make an audition worksheet

Select a dictionary variant for your checklist. The two original sentences retain their normal spelling; this worksheet helps you review a recording rather than forcing a speech engine to use phonemes.

Worksheet pronunciation variant

Your plain-text audition worksheet

How to pronounce hyperbole

Word: hyperbole
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: HH AY0 P ER1 B AH0 L IY2
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 4
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
Calling the queue endless was a piece of harmless hyperbole.
The essay uses hyperbole to reveal the speaker's impatience.

REVIEW CHECKLIST
[ ] Read both sentences naturally; keep the source wording.
[ ] Compare the intended pronunciation with the selected dictionary variant.
[ ] Listen for vowel sounds, consonants, and word stress in context.
[ ] Check with a speaker or another dictionary when accent or meaning matters.
[ ] Generate and listen to a short Murmur sample before exporting the full script.

Practice note: Audition hyperbole in an explanation followed by your quoted example. Compare neutral and playful delivery, listening for whether the audience can tell when you are discussing the device and when you are performing the exaggeration.

CMUdict is a North American English lexicon, not a recording or a complete accent guide.
Variant order is dictionary order; it is not a ranking of correctness.
Source: https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/cmudict.dict
Source commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690
License: https://www.murmurtts.com/downloads/cmudict-license.txt
Reference: https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/hyperbole

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Dictionary source

The phonemes on this page come from CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The dictionary maintainers acknowledge that errors and omissions can remain; check another source or a speaker when the pronunciation matters.

CMUdict README · Included dictionary license

Source version and checksum

Commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690

Dictionary SHA-256: 81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22

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