Standard Lemma guide

hyperbola

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: hīpûr'bələ
  • US: /haɪˈpɚ.bə.lə/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AY0 P ER1 B AH0 L AH0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A conic section formed by the intersection of a cone with a plane that intersects the base of the cone and is not tangent to the cone. The function y(x) = 1/x draws a hyperbola.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: geometry, mathematics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: conic section, curve

2

noun

Meaning 2

an open curve formed by a plane that cuts the base of a right circular cone

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: conic section, conic

History

Etymology

From New Latin hyperbola, from Ancient Greek ὑπερβολή (huperbolḗ). Doublet of hyperbole.

Across languages

Translations

51 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: hiperbolë — geometric curve
  • Arabic: قَطْعٌ زَائِد (qaṭʕun zāʔid) — geometric curve
  • Arabic: هَذْلُول (haḏlūl) — geometric curve
  • Armenian: հիպերբոլ (hiperbol) — geometric curve
  • Asturian: hipérbola — geometric curve
  • Belarusian: гіпе́рбала (hipjérbala) — geometric curve
  • Bengali: অধিবৃত্ত (odhibritto) — geometric curve
  • Bulgarian: хипе́рбола (hipérbola) — geometric curve
  • Catalan: hipèrbola — geometric curve
  • Catalan: hipèrbole — geometric curve
  • Cebuano: duhalitok — geometric curve
  • Chinese Mandarin: 雙曲線 /双曲线 (shuāngqūxiàn) — geometric curve
  • Czech: hyperbola — geometric curve
  • Czech: nadbytnice — geometric curve
  • Czech: převrchnice — geometric curve
  • Danish: hyperbel — geometric curve
  • Dutch: hyperbool — geometric curve
  • Esperanto: hiperbolo — geometric curve
  • Finnish: hyperbeli — geometric curve
  • French: hyperbole — geometric curve
  • Galician: hipérbole — geometric curve
  • Georgian: ჰიპერბოლა (hiṗerbola) — geometric curve
  • German: Hyperbel — geometric curve
  • Greek: υπερβολή (ypervolí) — geometric curve
  • Gujarati: અતિવલય (ativalya) — geometric curve
  • Hebrew: הִיפֵּרבּוֹלָה (hiperbola) — geometric curve
  • Hindi: अतिपरवलय (atipravlay) — geometric curve
  • Hungarian: hiperbola — geometric curve
  • Icelandic: breiðbogi — geometric curve
  • Icelandic: gleiðbogi — geometric curve
  • Irish: hipearbóil — geometric curve
  • Italian: iperbole — geometric curve
  • Japanese: 双曲線 (sōkyokusen) — geometric curve
  • Korean: 쌍곡선 (ssanggokseon) — geometric curve
  • Māori: pūwerewere — geometric curve
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hyperbel — geometric curve
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: hyperbel — geometric curve
  • Persian: هذلولی (hozluli) — geometric curve
  • Polish: hiperbola — geometric curve
  • Portuguese: hipérbole — geometric curve
  • Romanian: hiperbolă — geometric curve
  • Russian: гипе́рбола (gipérbola) — geometric curve
  • Slovak: hyperbola — geometric curve
  • Slovene: hiperbola — geometric curve
  • Spanish: hipérbola — geometric curve
  • Swedish: hyperbel — geometric curve
  • Thai: ไฮเพอร์โบลา (hai-pəə-boo-lâa) — geometric curve
  • Turkish: hiperbol — geometric curve
  • Ukrainian: гіпе́рбола (hipérbola) — geometric curve
  • Vietnamese: hypecbon — geometric curve
  • Welsh: hyperbola — geometric curve