metaphor means the use of a word, phrase, concept, or set of concepts to refer to something other than its literal meaning, invoking an implicit similarity between the thing described and what is denoted by the word, etc., that is used.
metaphor is pronounced /ˈmɛ.tə.fə/.
Why “metaphor” is a great word
A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable, implying a resemblance. From the Ancient Greek μεταφορά (metaphorá, "transfer"), from μεταφέρω (metaphérō, "to carry over"), from μετά (metá, "over, across") + φέρω (phérō, "to bear, carry"). Unlike simile, which places two things side-by-side with a like or as, or literal language, which clings to primary fact, a metaphor collapses the distance entirely, declaring an identity. It is the freighted cargo of meaning crossing from one shore to another: time becoming a thief, the body a vessel, grief a stone in the throat. It is the fundamental act by which we grasp one thing through the ghost of another, carrying the weight of an experience across until the boundary dissolves and we understand something new by pretending it is something else.
Etymology
From Middle French métaphore, from Latin metaphora, from Ancient Greek μεταφορά (metaphorá), from μεταφέρω (metaphérō, “to transfer, apply”), from μετά (metá, “with, across, after”) + φέρω (phérō, “to bear, carry”).
noun
- The use of a word, phrase, concept, or set of concepts to refer to something other than its literal meaning, invoking an implicit similarity between the thing described and what is denoted by the word, etc., that is used.“The next group of computational approaches to metaphor assume that metaphor is basically a hidden analogy.”
- A word or phrase used in such implied comparison.“A Metaphor, in place of proper words,
Resemblance puts; and dress to speech affords.”
- The use of an everyday object or concept to represent an underlying facet of the computer and thus aid users in performing tasks.“desktop metaphor, wastebasket metaphor”
verb
- To use a metaphor.
- To describe by means of a metaphor.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- simile 90% match — A figure of speech in which one thing is explicitly compared to another, using e.g. like or as. vs metaphor →
- metonymy 89% match — The use of a single characteristic or part of an object, concept or phenomenon to identify the entire object, concept, phenomenon or a related object. vs metaphor →
- synecdoche 88% match — A figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole, or the whole to represent a part, or a specific kind or instance to represent the general category, or the general category to represent a specific kind or instance, or the constituent material to represent the thing made from it. vs metaphor →
- allusion 87% match — An indirect reference; a hint; a reference to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned. vs metaphor →
- tralation 87% match — The use of a word in a figurative or extended sense; a metaphor; a trope. vs metaphor →
- metalepsis 87% match — A rhetorical device whereby one word is metonymically substituted for another word which is itself a metonym; more broadly, a metaphor consisting of a series of embedded metonyms or rhetorical substitutions. vs metaphor →
- hypocatastasis 86% match — The implication or declaration of a comparison that does not directly invoke both objects of the comparison. vs metaphor →
- antiphrasis 86% match — Use of a word or phrase in a sense opposite of its literal meaning, especially for ironic or humorous effect. vs metaphor →