Meiosis vs. Hyperbole — What's the Difference?

Meiosis ( (listen); from Greek μείωσις, meiosis, meaning "lessening", because it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms used to produce the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately result in four cells with only one copy of each chromosome (haploid).

Hyperbole (, listen) (adjective form hyperbolic, listen) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth').

(Genetics) The process of cell division in sexually reproducing organisms that reduces the number of chromosomes from diploid to haploid, as in the production of gametes.

Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally

Rhetorical understatement.

A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.

A figure of speech whereby something is made to seem smaller or less important than it actually is.

Deliberate or unintentional overstatement, particularly extreme overstatement.

Cell division of a diploid cell into four haploid cells, which develop to produce gametes.

(countable) An instance or example of such overstatement.

Diminution; a species of hyperbole, representing a thing as being less than it really is; understatement; see also litotes.

A hyperbola.

The cellular process by which a diploid progenitor cell forms haploid gametes, including a division of one diploid cell into two cells, each with one of the homologous sets of chromosomes.

A figure of speech in which the expression is an evident exaggeration of the meaning intended to be conveyed, or by which things are represented as much greater or less, better or worse, than they really are; a statement exaggerated fancifully, through excitement, or for effect.

(genetics) cell division that produces reproductive cells in sexually reproducing organisms; the nucleus divides into four nuclei each containing half the chromosome number (leading to gametes in animals and spores in plants)

Extravagant exaggeration

Understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary);