Figurative Language
Figurative language can be defined as language expanded beyond its ordinary literal meaning. It uses comparisons to express a relationship between unlike things.
simile - a comparison using the words like or as to point out a similarity between two basically
unlike things
Example: Susan is as sweet as honey.
Jason runs like the wind.
metaphor - a figure of speech that involves an implied comparison between two basically unlike things
(does not use like or as)
Example: Her eyes are stars.
personification - a figure of speech in which human characteristics are given to nonhuman things
and events
Example: The trees danced in the wind.
hyperbole - an exaggerated statement used to heighten effect
Example: I could eat a horse.
I will love you until the seas run dry.
idiom - a phrase or expression whose meaning cannot be understood from only the ordinary meanings
of the words in it
Example: let off steam
broke my heart
all thumbs
raining cats and dogs
onomatopoeia - the use of words to imitate sounds
Example: hiss
rumble
hush
imagery - language that emphasizes sense impressions that help the reader see, hear, feel, smell, and
taste things described in the work
Example: "Warm skies and gulf blue streams are in my blood. I belong with the smell of fresh
pine, with the trail of coon, and the spring growth of wild onion."
from Sorrow Home
by Margaret Walker