metaphorical meaning
Beyond literal interpretation
Metaphorical meaning is the figurative sense of a word or expression, as distinguished from its literal meaning.
When someone says the project died, they don't mean it was once alive—the death is metaphorical.
Most words carry both literal and metaphorical meanings, and context determines which applies: a cold room versus a cold person.
- tenor and vehicleMetaphor's subject and image
- rhetorical flourishDecorative language technique
- representationDepiction or likeness
- between the linesIn implied fashion
- symbolismRepresenting concepts through images
personification · abstraction · metonymy · mask · figure of speech · literary device · inferencing · simile · archetype · shared narratives · idiomatic expressions · hyperbole · deeper · deeper sense · association · evocative · implied · allegory
metaphorical meaningliteral meaning
Exact, non-figurative interpretation
literal sense · literal interpretation · denotation · plain meaning · surface meaning