When it refers to an impossibility, it is called adynaton /uh
When it refers to an impossibility, it is called adynaton /uh DYE nuh dahn/. Its opposite is called meiosis /my OH sis/. This literary device is used to emphasize the truth of a statement, such as when Thomas Babington Macauley said that "Dr. Johnson drank his tea in oceans." For ten points, name this bold, deliberate overstatement, which is not intended to be taken literally.
When it refers to an impossibility, it is called adynaton /uh
{hyperbole}