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61 results for: Metaphor

What Is A Metaphor
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Dictionary Entries (7 more entries. View all »)
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Cite This Source
met·a·phor    Audio Help   [met-uh-fawr, -fer] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.” Compare mixed metaphor, simile (def. 1).
2.something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.
[Origin: 1525–35; < L metaphora < Gk metaphorá a transfer, akin to metaphérein to transfer. See meta-, -phore]

—Related forms
met·a·phor·i·cal    Audio Help   [met-uh-fawr-i-kuhl, -for-] Pronunciation Key, met·a·phor·ic, adjective
met·a·phor·i·cal·ly, adverb
met·a·phor·i·cal·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Thesaurus Entries
  Synonym Collection v1.1Cite This Source
Main Entry:  metaphor
Part of Speech:  adjective
Synonyms:  figurative, metaphorical
Source:  Synonym Collection v1.1
Copyright © 2008 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC.
  Synonym Collection v1.1Cite This Source
Main Entry:  metaphor
Part of Speech:  noun
Synonyms:  allegory, analogy, comparison, conceit, drift, image, meaning, simile, symbol, tenor, anagoge, figure of speech, imagery, metonymy, synecdoche, trope, vehicle
Source:  Synonym Collection v1.1
Copyright © 2008 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC.
  Synonym Collection v1.1Cite This Source
Main Entry:  metaphor
Part of Speech:  verb
Synonyms:  allegorize, metaphorize
Source:  Synonym Collection v1.1
Copyright © 2008 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC.

Encyclopedia Articles (49 more entries. View all »)
Columbia Electronic EncyclopediaCite This Source


metaphor [Gr.,=transfer], in rhetoric, a figure of speech in which one class of things is referred to as if it belonged to another class. Whereas a simile states that A is like B, a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A. Some metaphors are explicit, like Shakespeare's line from As You Like It: "All the world's a stage." A metaphor can also be implicit, as in Shakespeare's Sonnet LXXIII, where old age is indicated by a description of autumn:
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
  Where yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
  Bare ruined choirs, where once the sweet birds sang.
A dead metaphor, such as "the arm" of a chair, is one that has become so common that it is no longer considered a metaphor. 
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004, Columbia University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press




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