Simile
noun
A phrase that compares two things using 'like' or 'as'.
Her smile was as bright as the Sun, is an example of a simile.
Often appears as...
- use a simile
- write a simile
Usage tips
Literary
noun
In music, a term indicating that a passage should be played in a similar style to the previous passage.
The composer used 'simile' to instruct the orchestra to continue playing softly.
Often appears as...
- play simile
- simile marking
Usage tips
Technical
noun
A phrase that compares two things using 'like' or 'as'.
Her smile was as bright as the Sun, is an example of a simile.
Often appears as...
- use a simile
- write a simile
Usage tips
Literary
noun
In music, a term indicating that a passage should be played in a similar style to the previous passage.
The composer used 'simile' to instruct the orchestra to continue playing softly.
Often appears as...
- play simile
- simile marking
Usage tips
Technical
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Device
Similes are used to create vivid imagery or convey a strong feeling in writing.
Listening to her sing, it was like a bird in the morning.
Pro Tip 2/3Imaginative Comparison
A simile links two unrelated things to suggest a similarity that's often imaginative or surprising.
He fought like a lion in the battle.
Pro Tip 3/3Common Patterns
Similes often follow the pattern 'as [adjective] as' or '[noun] like', though variations exist.
She worked as hard as iron.
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Device
Similes are used to create vivid imagery or convey a strong feeling in writing.
Listening to her sing, it was like a bird in the morning.
Pro Tip 2/3Imaginative Comparison
A simile links two unrelated things to suggest a similarity that's often imaginative or surprising.
He fought like a lion in the battle.
Pro Tip 3/3Common Patterns
Similes often follow the pattern 'as [adjective] as' or '[noun] like', though variations exist.
She worked as hard as iron.
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Device
Similes are used to create vivid imagery or convey a strong feeling in writing.
Listening to her sing, it was like a bird in the morning.
Pro Tip 2/3Imaginative Comparison
A simile links two unrelated things to suggest a similarity that's often imaginative or surprising.
He fought like a lion in the battle.
Pro Tip 3/3Common Patterns
Similes often follow the pattern 'as [adjective] as' or '[noun] like', though variations exist.
She worked as hard as iron.
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Video examples
Marco Tempest: A magical...
The tools of social networking, these are the digital campfires around which the audience gathers to hear our story. We turn facts into similes and metaphors, and even fantasies. We polish the rough edges of our lives so that they feel whole.
Video examples
The art of the metaphor...
Those are called similes. A simile is a metaphor that admits it's making a comparison. Similes tend to make you think. Metaphors let you feel things directly. Take Shakespeare's famous metaphor, "All the world's a stage."
Video examples
A Story of Community and...
if we want our kids to understand care about and act to conserve these vital ecosystems we need to role model it with language let us then jettison old tired inaccurate similes and metaphors like as
Video examples
Marco Tempest: A magical...
The tools of social networking, these are the digital campfires around which the audience gathers to hear our story. We turn facts into similes and metaphors, and even fantasies. We polish the rough edges of our lives so that they feel whole.
Video examples
The art of the metaphor...
Those are called similes. A simile is a metaphor that admits it's making a comparison. Similes tend to make you think. Metaphors let you feel things directly. Take Shakespeare's famous metaphor, "All the world's a stage."
Video examples
A Story of Community and...
if we want our kids to understand care about and act to conserve these vital ecosystems we need to role model it with language let us then jettison old tired inaccurate similes and metaphors like as
Example 1 of 3
Quote examples
Alice Oswald
British Poet
Stripped of its plot, the 'Iliad' is a scattering of names and biographies of ordinary soldiers: men who trip over their shields, lose their courage or miss their wives. In addition to these, there is a cast of anonymous people: the farmers, walkers, mothers, neighbours who inhabit its similes.
Quote examples
Ian Anderson
British Musician
If you're gonna use simile, analogy, metaphor, be descriptive and have some flowery adjectives and a few odd nouns and some engaging bits of dialogue or sentiment, then you're sort of writing a novel, really. But rock lyrics are not really known for their sophistication.
Quote examples
Salman Rushdie
Indian Novelist
Human beings, you see, do absolutely two primary things. We see like and unlike. Like becomes, in literature, simile and metaphor. Unlike becomes uniqueness and difference, from which I believe, the novel is born.
Quote examples
Sylvia Plath
American Poet
Since my woman's world is perceived greatly through the emotions and the senses, I treat it that way in my writing - and am often overweighted with heavy descriptive passages and a kaleidoscope of similes.
Quote examples
Will Self
English Author
Death, the real simile for disease - for when we are ill, do we not always feel like we are dying, even if it's only a little? - remains, despite our secularism, the most metaphoricised phenomenon of all.
Quote examples
Robert Cormier
American Author
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.
Quote examples
Ned Beauman
British Novelist
The simile has to match the tone of its surroundings and has to be like a little joke. Writing a simile that isn't funny on some level is quite hard.
Quote examples
Franz Kafka
Novelist
In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.
Quote examples
Robert South
English Clergyman
Similes prove nothing, but yet greatly lighten and relieve the tedium of argument.
Quote examples
Joe R. Lansdale
American Writer
Ray Bradbury taught me the importance of metaphor and simile and poetic style.
Quote examples
Alice Oswald
British Poet
Stripped of its plot, the 'Iliad' is a scattering of names and biographies of ordinary soldiers: men who trip over their shields, lose their courage or miss their wives. In addition to these, there is a cast of anonymous people: the farmers, walkers, mothers, neighbours who inhabit its similes.
Quote examples
Ian Anderson
British Musician
If you're gonna use simile, analogy, metaphor, be descriptive and have some flowery adjectives and a few odd nouns and some engaging bits of dialogue or sentiment, then you're sort of writing a novel, really. But rock lyrics are not really known for their sophistication.
Quote examples
Salman Rushdie
Indian Novelist
Human beings, you see, do absolutely two primary things. We see like and unlike. Like becomes, in literature, simile and metaphor. Unlike becomes uniqueness and difference, from which I believe, the novel is born.
Quote examples
Sylvia Plath
American Poet
Since my woman's world is perceived greatly through the emotions and the senses, I treat it that way in my writing - and am often overweighted with heavy descriptive passages and a kaleidoscope of similes.
Quote examples
Will Self
English Author
Death, the real simile for disease - for when we are ill, do we not always feel like we are dying, even if it's only a little? - remains, despite our secularism, the most metaphoricised phenomenon of all.
Quote examples
Robert Cormier
American Author
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.
Quote examples
Ned Beauman
British Novelist
The simile has to match the tone of its surroundings and has to be like a little joke. Writing a simile that isn't funny on some level is quite hard.
Quote examples
Franz Kafka
Novelist
In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.
Quote examples
Robert South
English Clergyman
Similes prove nothing, but yet greatly lighten and relieve the tedium of argument.
Quote examples
Joe R. Lansdale
American Writer
Ray Bradbury taught me the importance of metaphor and simile and poetic style.
Example 1 of 10
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