figurative language
Non-literal speech patterns
Figurative language is speech or writing that departs from literal meaning to create effect.
It encompasses metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, and similar devices: The news hit her like a ton of bricks.
Figurative language adds vividness, emotional resonance, or compression of meaning that plain statement cannot achieve.
The opposite is literal language.
- simileComparison via "as"
- metaphorImplied identity comparison
- dead metaphorFigurative phrase now literal-seeming
- mixed metaphorsIncongruent imagery combined
- oxymoronSelf-contradicting phrase device
symbolism · imagery · irony · poetic device · metonymy · transferred epithet · personification · allegory · synecdoche · literary device · litotes · analogy · hyperbole · conceit · understatement · play on words · juxtaposition · zeugma
- elementary schoolclassroom, student, first grade teacher, reading skills, teacher
- languageword, words, grammar, spelling, alphabet
- language artsreading comprehension, grammar rules, vocabulary building, phonics, spelling bees
- literary analysisliterary analysis, character analysis, book review, plot, critical analysis
- literary devicesmetaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, alliteration
- Literature Studiesliterary analysis, literary theory, close reading, literary canon, literary movements
figurative languageliteral meaning
Exact, non-figurative interpretation
plain meaning · literal interpretation · surface meaning · literalism · explicit language
figurative languageprecise language
Exact, unambiguous expression
technical language · scientific language · descriptive language · jargon · legalese
figure, language, figures, figured, figuring, configuration, figurative, configure, figurehead