Figurative language helps readers identify a writer’s attitude and tone. Figurative language appeals to the imagination and the emotions and is not to be understood in a literal sense. It relies on the use of interesting or striking images for its effect. Through a unique comparison between different things, figures of speech enliven and energize speech and also afford fresh ways of looking at the world. Without figures of speech, language would be dull and mechanical.

A metaphor is an implicit comparison between two essentially unlike things without using the word like or as.

Examples of metaphors

A simile is an explicit comparison between two essentially unlike things using the word like or as.

Examples of similes

A hyperbole is a bold exaggeration or deliberate overstatement not to be taken literally.

Examples of hyperbole

A symbol is a person, place, or thing that represents or stands for an abstract idea or concept.

Examples of common symbols

An oxymoron is a figure of speech usually composed of a pair of neighboring contradictory words (often within a sentence) or a combination of contradictory or incongruous words.

Examples of oxymoron

An idiom is a set phrase or fixed expression that means something other than the literal meanings of its individual words.

Examples of idioms

An analogy is a term indicating a comparison of two different things that essentially have the same functions and also meaning a word relationship.

Examples of analogy

An epithet is an adjective or a descriptive phrase that is used to express some quality or attribute of a person or thing.

Examples of epithets

Onomatopoeia is the formation or use of words, such as click, whoosh, and zap, that sound like the objects they name or the sounds those objects make.

Examples of onomatopoeia

Personification is a figure of speech that gives non-living objects or abstract ideas human traits and qualities, such as emotions, desires, and sensations.

Examples of personification