figurative meaning
Not literal interpretation
Figurative meaning is the non-literal sense of a word or expression—what it conveys through metaphor, idiom, or imaginative extension rather than its basic definition.
When someone says the news hit me like a ton of bricks, the figurative meaning is emotional impact, not physical weight.
Most words carry both literal and figurative meanings, with context determining which applies.
- metaphorImplied identity comparison
- symbolicRepresenting through signs
- impliedSuggested without stating
- connotationImplied sense, not dictionary
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
abstract · poetic · imagery · suggestive · literal · hidden · underlying · deeper · deeper sense · veiled · indirect · simile · turn of phrase · interpretation · nuance · subtext · between the lines · evocative
- languagelanguage, word, words, grammar, spelling
- vocabularyword, words, new words, term, terms
- meaningsense, significance, denotation, definition, connotation
- interpretationinterpretive dance, translation, interpreting, translating, construing
- figurestrope, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification
- language nuancesnuance, idiom, idioms, connotation, denotation
figurative meaningliteral meaning
Exact, non-figurative interpretation
literal sense · denotation · literal interpretation · surface meaning · plain meaning
figurative, figuratively, figure, figures, figured, figuring, figuration, configuration, configure