simile
/ˈsɪmɪli
/noun
1A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g. as brave as a lion).By using irony, similes, and symbols, to name a few, Crane ‘paints’ a vivid picture of what life was like for the fragile Henry Fleming....
- But the greatest fun of the book comes from the rhyming sentences that bear many vivid metaphors, similes and puns.
- And he didn't apologize, it wasn't beautiful language, it wasn't all metaphors and similes and onomatopoeia, and it wasn't, you know, packed with symbolism that you had to analyze.
1.1 [mass noun] The use of similes as a method of comparison: his audacious deployment of simile and metaphor...
- Neruda's incredible use of metaphor, simile and synecdoche, among other poetic techniques, frequently confronts the reader unprepared, jolted by the sudden flash of creative spontaneity.
- Like Pound's ‘In A Station of the Metro,’ Piombino uses juxtaposition rather than simile and metaphor; schools are never said to be machines or directly like machines.
- A creative synthesis of imagery and symbol, simile and metaphor - ideal vehicles for the accommodative range of the stream of consciousness narrative mode - helps to unfold the character, plot and the denouement.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin, neuter of similis 'like'.