1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Metaphor

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles” or "All the world's a stage” ( Shakespeare).

n. One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: "Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven” ( Neal Gabler).

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. The use of a word or phrase to refer to something that it isn’t, invoking a direct similarity between the word or phrase used and the thing described, but in the case of English without the words like or as, which would imply a simile.

n. The word or phrase used in this way. An implied comparison.

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. The transference of the relation between one set of objects to another set for the purpose of brief explanation; a compressed simile; e. g., the ship plows the sea.

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A figure of speech by which, from some supposed resemblance or analogy, a name, an attribute, or an action belonging to or characteristic of one object is assigned to another to which it is not literally applicable; the figurative transfer of a descriptive or affirmative word or phrase from one thing to another; implied comparison by transference of terms: as, the ship spread its wings to the breeze; “Judah is a lion's whelp,” Gen. xlix. 9.

n. Synonyms Comparison, Allegory.etc. See simile.

WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

n. a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity

Word Usage

"Never straying too far from the title metaphor, Sting depicts the rise and fall of human fortunes and emotions, the cycles of despair and hope as reliable as day after night, spring after winter, warm after cold."

Hypernym

Words that are more generic or abstract

figure trope image figure of speech

Cross Reference

mixed metaphor idiom metonymy simile analogy

Hyponym

dead metaphor mixed metaphor frozen metaphor synesthetic metaphor

Form

metaphoricity dead metaphor metaphorical extension malaphor extended metaphor

Same Context

Words that are found in similar contexts

allusion imagery analogy phrase myth