A metaphor can help you describe one object by comparing it to something else. Let’s take at some metaphor examples and how they work!
Author
Liam Forsyth
Published
November 17, 2023
A metaphor can help you describe one object by comparing it literally to something else. Let’s take at some metaphor examples and how they work!
Author
Liam Forsyth
Published
Nov 17, 2023
A metaphor can help you describe one object by comparing it literally to something else. Let’s take at some metaphor examples and how they work!
Author
Liam Forsyth
Published
Nov 16, 2023
Key takeaways
Table of contents
Sometimes it can be hard to picture exactly what something looks like. But, it may be easy to picture something far more common in your imagination. This is where the direct comparison of a metaphor can help!
Just like a simile, a metaphor is used to suggest something is like something else.
However, the difference is that they don’t just help us say something is like something else, we say it is something else.
Some metaphors are so vivid that they can really capture the reader’s imagination!
They can also add emphasis to make something stand out. For example, if a lesson felt like went by slowly, just how slowly did it go? Well, the lesson was a snail crawling through the day, of course!
This emphasis helps make a clear image for the reader, and it can create some funny images.
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Let’s break down the above to answer, ‘what exactly is a metaphor?’.
When using metaphors, the two items that are being compared must be different, but they’ll share the same traits. They might both be fast and funny, for example!
Therefore, a metaphor definition for KS2 could be written as:
Comparing two things that look, act or seem the same by saying that one of them is the other.
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Now that we’ve looked at some metaphor examples, we can dig a little deeper into the different types of metaphors and the differences between them.
There are several different types of metaphor; they can change the tone, set the atmosphere or simply allow the reader’s imagination to run wild. Let’s take a look!
This type of metaphor is simply longer, or it might contain more than one metaphor joined together with a conjunction.
Here’s an example of an extended metaphor:
With implied metaphors a comparison is made, but not as literally as in other cases.
Here’s an example of an implied metaphor:
Implied metaphors can be used without even realising it. If you go charging down the street, you’re being compared to a bull or a rhino, but you aren’t really one at all.
Perhaps the most interesting type of metaphor is the dead metaphor. It implies the metaphor has become dead!
The comparison has been used so much that the metaphor meaning has just become accepted as the meaning of the phrase.
Let’s look at an example of a dead metaphor:
Superb! You now have a good understanding of what a metaphor is. Give them a try in your next piece of writing. Good luck!
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A metaphor is a phrase used to describe an item or action that isn’t literally applicable.
For example, “it’s raining cats and dogs!”.
There are many different types of metaphor, including:
Metaphors can help to explain tricky concepts and can also create images in a reader’s mind, helping with storytelling!
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