Example for the word metaphor

Definition of Metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two non-similar things. As a literary device, metaphor creates implicit comparisons without the express use of “like” or “as.” Metaphor is a means of asserting that two things are identical in comparison rather than just similar. This is useful in literature for using specific images or concepts to state abstract truths.

For example, one of the most famous metaphors in literature is featured in this line from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet, the sun! In this metaphor, Juliet is compared to the sun. In fact, this figure of speech claims that Juliet is the sun. Of course, the reader understands that Romeo does not believe that Juliet is literally the sun. Instead, the comparison demonstrates the idea that Romeo equates Juliet with the beauty, awe, and life-giving force of the sun. To Romeo, symbolically, Juliet and the sun are the same.

Common Examples of Metaphor

There are many common examples of metaphors in everyday conversation and writing. Here are some well-known uses of this figure of speech:

• Laughter is the best medicine.
• She is just a late bloomer.
• Is there a black sheep in your family?
• His heart of stone surprised me.
• I smell success in this building.
• He’s buried in a sea of paperwork.
• There is a weight on my shoulder.
• Time is money.
• No man is an island.
• That actor is a tall drink of water.
• Age is a state of mind.
• Last night I slept the sleep of the dead.
• The new parents had stars in their eyes.
• The criminal has blood on his hands.
• There is a garden in her face.
• Our family is a patchwork quilt.
• She has been living in a bubble.
• Your argument is a slippery slope.
• We found it under a blanket of sand.
• I’m pleased to meet your better half.

Examples of Metaphor in Movie Lines

Some of the most well-known lines in movies feature metaphors. Here are some memorable movie lines that showcase metaphor as an effective device:

• A Dream is a wish your heart makes. (Walt Disney’s Cinderella)
• The rain on my car is a baptism. (Say Anything)
• Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. (The Princess Bride)
• Fasten your seat-belts; it’s going to be a bumpy night. (All About Eve)
• Life is a cabaret, old chum. (Cabaret)
• Say ‘hello’ to my little friend. (Scarface)
• It was beauty killed the beast. (King Kong)
• Hell is a teenage girl. (Jennifer’s Body)
• You sit on a throne of lies. (Elf)
• I drink your milkshake. (There Will Be Blood)

Famous Examples of Metaphor

Metaphor is also found in many famous examples of poetry, prose, drama, lyrics, and even clever quotations. Here are some famous examples of metaphor:

• Your heart is my piñata. (Chuck Palahniuk)
• Life is a highway. (Tom Cochrane)
• For woman is yin, the darkness within, where untempered passions lie. (Amy Tan)
• Love is a battlefield. (Pat Benatar)
• Each friend represents a world in us. (Anais Nin)
• You are sunlight and I moon. (Miss Saigon)
• If music be the food of love, play on (William Shakespeare)
• Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them. (Dr. Seuss)
• Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you. (Terry Pratchet)
• hope is the thing with feathers (Emily Dickinson)

Difference Between Metaphor and Simile

It can be difficult in some instances to distinguish between metaphor and simile as literary devices. Both are figures of speech designed to create comparisons. In fact, simile is a subset of metaphor. However, they are distinguished by the presence of one of two words: “like” and “as.” Metaphors create direct comparisons without using either of these words. Similes feature either like or as in making a comparison.

A good example to distinguish between these two literary devices comes from the movie adaptation of the novel Forrest Gump by Winston Groom. One of the movie’s themes is based on a comparison between life and a box of chocolates. The main character, Forrest Gump, quotes his mother: “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” In this case, the comparison between life and a box of chocolates is a simile due to the presence of the word like.

In a different scene, the audience hears Forrest’s mother say: “Life is a box of chocolates, Forrest. You never know what you’re going to get.” This comparison is a metaphor due to the absence of the word like (or as). Both quotes feature comparative figures of speech. However, the uses of metaphor and simile create subtle differences in the meaning of comparing life to a box of chocolates.

Additional: Difference Between Metaphor, Allegory, and Simile

As far as the difference between an allegory and metaphor is concerned, both seem to belong to the same group of figures of speech. The reason is that both mean comparison. However, an allegory presents a long or sustained comparison that may comprise a full story, having allegorical characters and situations. It could be a story within a story such as the Allegory of Cave. Conversely, a metaphor is just a word or a phrase showing an implied comparison, while a simile is almost near in meanings as it shows the same thing with the use of the word ‘like’ or ‘as.’

Writing Metaphor

Overall, as a literary device, metaphor functions as a means of creating a direct comparison between two seemingly different things. This is effective for readers in that metaphor can create an association between two dissimilar entities or ideas that, as a result of the metaphor, illuminate each other and deepen the meaning of both. Metaphor is an essential figure of speech for writers of both poetry and prose.

It’s important that writers construct proper metaphors so that the comparative meaning is not lost for the reader. In fact, metaphors are dependent on the understandable combination of a principal term and a secondary term. The principal term conveys the concrete or literal entity, and the secondary term is used figuratively to add meaning. For example, in the metaphor “the car was a lemon,” the principal term is “car” and the secondary term is “lemon.” The use of lemon adds figurative meaning for the car.

Here are some ways that writers benefit from incorporating metaphor into their work:

Create Imagery

Metaphors allow writers to create imagery for readers that is limited by description alone. In other words, an effective metaphor eliminates the need for excessive explanation or description on the part of the writer. Instead, by implicitly comparing two different things, an image is created for the reader to allow for greater meaning and understanding. This imagery is a powerful result of using metaphor as a literary device.

Evoke Thought and Emotion

When writers utilize metaphor as a literary device, it often causes the reader to think about the “logic” or truth in such a comparison. These thoughts, in turn, may evoke emotion in the reader with a successful metaphor through the realization that the comparison is valid. This is especially effective in poetry as a means of portraying truths in a lyrical yet concise manner.

Using Metaphor in a Sentence

1. The wolf’s eyes were onyx in the dark.
2. Is it your room? Serious it’s a hot furnace!
3. Zain is a chicken, scared all the time.
4. I hate it here. This place is a zoo.
5. Sofi’s bed was a marshmallow. So soft!

Examples of Metaphor in Literature

Metaphor is a very effective literary device. Here are some examples of metaphor and how it adds to the significance of well-known literary works:

Example 1: Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

In this poem, Frost compares end-of-world destructive forces to both fire and ice. These are metaphors that serve as figures of speech in the sense that the poet does not literally mean that the world will end because of fire and ice. Instead, fire represents destructive forces associated with desire, such as power, jealousy, and anger. Similarly, ice represents destructive forces associated with hate, such as prejudice, hostility, and isolation. These metaphors are an effective literary device in that it causes the reader to consider that desire and hatred are as destructive as fire and ice.

Example 2: Dreams by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

In this poem, Hughes utilizes metaphor to compare life to a broken-winged bird and a barren field as consequences to the loss of dreams. In the first stanza, Hughes claims that if dreams die then life is a “broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” This is significant use of metaphor in that it characterizes life without dreams as something fragile that has been irreparably harmed. The metaphor creates an image for the reader of a bird that is wounded, grounded, and unable to reach its purpose or potential. If life is this bird, then, without dreams, it is also wounded, grounded, and thwarted in purpose.

Hughes utilizes the second metaphor in the second stanza for life without dreams. In this case, when dreams go, life is a “barren field frozen with snow.” This metaphor creates a comparison between life and an empty, frozen wasteland. Therefore, due to Hughes’s use of metaphor as a literary device in this poem, life becomes death and a burial ground without dreams.

Example 3: since feeling is first by E.E. Cummings

we are for eachother: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis

In this poem, Cummings uses metaphor in a clever way to compare life and death to the constraints of a writing formality and punctuation. In fact, it is a negative comparison in the sense that the poet states life is “not” a paragraph and death is “no” parenthesis. The use of metaphor as a literary device in this work is both poetic and self-reflexive with significance. The metaphors for life and death are poetic because the poet is showcasing that life and death are concepts too monumental to be “contained” in writing or “enclosed” by punctuation (paragraph and parenthesis). Yet, the metaphors are also self-reflexive in that the comparisons of life and death are simultaneously “contained” in and “enclosed” by the poem itself.

Synonyms of Metaphor

Although no words could be used interchangeably for a metaphor, some could be near in meanings such as trope, image, allegory, parable, symbol, simile, and emblem. There are various other tropes, too, but almost every other trope has its own definition, meaning, and examples. Therefore, they could not be used interchangeably when there is a question of distinct clarification of meanings.

In this example, “sadness” is the tenor and the “wall between two gardens” is the vehicle. Think of how this use of metaphor makes the writer’s message more powerful. He could have said, “Sadness is something that comes between times of happiness”, but that just wouldn’t have the same impact.

What is Metaphor

One of the best ways to understand the nature of something is to compare it against something else whose attributes are known. Authors frequently use comparisons in their writing to help to express what they mean in terms with which the reader can relate.

That is the point of writing after all — to communicate ideas clearly between the author and the audience. One of the most used types of literary comparisons is the metaphor.

Metaphor Definition

A metaphor is a phrase of words that makes a comparison between two unlike objects without using the words “like” and/or “as.” Like its cousin, the simile, the metaphor is used to provide the reader with information about a person or an object by comparing it to something with which the reader is familiar.

For example, the metaphor, “the house was an oven when the air conditioner broke in July,” gives the reader a greater understanding about the temperature inside the house by comparing it to an oven, which is known to be hot. The reader makes an implied connection between the house and the oven to come to the conclusion that the house is indeed hot.

Example for Metaphor

To make it even clearer, it is better to give examples of metaphor in literature:

“The curtain of night fell upon us.” It is clear for everybody that night has no curtains, but agree, it sounds more beautiful.

“I am standing at the coast, in the fire of a surf … (K. Balmont)”. It is clear that fire and water are two opposite elements, but here they were joined in an oxymoron (type of metaphor), and it turned out to be more poetic than the word “bursts” instead of “fire”.

Extended Metaphor Definition

An extended metaphor is a type of metaphor that is not short, but it extends for pages and even for the whole work. It would be more clear with an example for extended metaphor.

One of the most vivid examples is the monologue of Romeo at the Juliet’s balcony. During the whole speech, Romeo compares Juliet to the sun and the love to the summer.

Simile and Metaphor

Like similes, metaphors can be either implicit or explicit in nature. An implicit metaphor is a metaphor in which the characteristic being compared between two objects is not stated and left up to the reader to imply the meaning from the context of the sentence.

The previous example is an example of an implicit metaphor in which the reader has to make the inference that the house is hot. For an implied metaphor, a reader has to draw upon their own experiences to make the connection.

A metaphor is explicit if the characteristic being compared is stated. For example, if the sentence were to be changed to say, “The house was so hot that it was an oven when the air conditioner broke in July,” it would be an example of an explicit metaphor, because the characteristic, hot, is stated.

How to define a metaphor?

When constructing metaphors it is important to draw on personal experience to create interesting and meaningful comparisons. However, writers should not stray too far or make a metaphor too abstract so that the average reader has a hard time grasping the point of the comparison.

Metaphors should be original, so that they are not cliché, but also concrete enough that readers do not have to be intimately familiar with the details of an author’s life in order to understand the meaning of the sentence or phrase.

Metaphors like all figures of speech add interest and imagery to a piece of writing. Metaphors can also increase the emotional content and connections between the words and the reader, which can provide a richer and more fulfilling experience.

What is a Metaphor video

About Author

Marcus Leengen

I’m literary lover! I enjoy writing articles for FigurativeLanguage.net

We’re free proud birds; it is time for the friends

To fly to the white of the rock in a haze,

To fly to the blue of the sea and the sky,

Where evenly dwell only tempests… and I!

A.S. Pushkin, the poem «Prisoner»

What is this abstract about? It is about freedom! But how many times does the word freedom occur in the present abstract? Not once! How did we understand that the point is about freedom? Metaphorically.

What is metaphor? Who came up with this term? What kinds of metaphors exist? How do they influence our speech?

What Metaphor Is

Though metaphors are as old as Adam, the term metaphor (Greek μεταφορά — word contagion) was introduced by Greek philosopher Aristotle. It represents a trope or a figure of speech, which uses certain object for describing another one, applying associations, analogies or similarities.

For example, we say глазное яблоко /an eyeball/. It is called similarity in form. Forehead of aft end we call нос /nose/, this is similarity in situation. We also find similarity in colour: у тебя сегодня шоколадный загар /you have chocolate-coloured suntan today/, ты бледный как поганка /you are whiter shade of pale/. We say: крыло самолета /airplane wing/ because birds have wings, and hear our dog завыл, как ветер /to howl like the wind/. Through the lens of metaphor Aristotle perceived art as the reflection of life.

Eventually, a lot of metaphoric expressions, more truly their figurative sense, expel the primary meaning of expressions. For example: розовые очки /rose-coloured spectacles/, жизнь на волоске /life hangs in the balance/, крылья мечты /wings of a dream/, закат жизни /downhill of life/ or рассвет молодости /dawn of youth/.

Hyperbole, metonymy and synecdoche are close to metaphor in their meanings. Whereas the former ones use exaggeration principle (легче верблюду пройти сквозь игольное ушко, чем богатому в царство небесное /it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for rich to get to the kingdom of heaven/), then the latter ones are more allegorical.

Types of Metaphors

Since Aristotle’s times, metaphors were classified and divided into types:

Absolute metaphor

It integrates dissimilar notions or words. For example: начинка высказываний /filling of utterances/, комок нервов /bundle of nerves/, груда впечатлений /heap of impressions/.

Dead metaphor

Recognized in society without any figurative consequences: носик чайника /nose of a kettle/, ножка стула /leg of a chair/

Dying metaphor

Congenial with the former, but it has bigger stereotype coefficient

For example: червь сомнения /an equipoise of doubt/, камень преткновения /stumbling block/, печать соблазна /seal of temptation/.

Extended metaphor

In this case metaphor is used in small literary fragment as basis:

People were impressed by spiritual hunger: traditional church either suggests old provisions or leaves people starving.

Metaphor as a turn of speech activates our right hemisphere, something irrational and inconscient. The meaning of metaphor lies in analogy: 1 refers to 2 as 3 refers to 4.

Functions of Metaphors

1) Aesthetic

Metaphor was created to make any speech lively, interesting and memorable. Cicero wrote that metaphor seasons any speech, underlines orator’s exalted and sonorous style.

2) Axiological

Aristotle considered different words to expose one and the same object differently. «If you want to expose positive sides of an object, he said, use metaphors of positive objects».

Classic examples: «В крови горит огонь желанья…» (А. Пушкин) /My blood is blazing with desire (A.S. Pushkin)/ , «Золотою лягушкой луна распласталась на тихой воде» (С. Есенин) /Golden frog moon sprawled on the calm water (S. Esenin)/.

If there’s some sense to blacken an object, use bad things. «Того змея воспоминаний, Того раскаянье грызёт…» /Him does the snake of memories, him does repentance gnaw/, «Ты пьешь волшебный яд желаний» /You will drink the sweet poison of desire/ (А Пушкин /A.S. Pushkin/) . And there are some known to everybody: ледяное сердце /heart of ice/, каменное сердце /heart of stone/, железные нервы /nerves of steel/ etc.

3) Nominative

It happens that metaphor nominates objects. Ancient orators regarded that metaphor encourages arising of new notions, images or subjects. Recollect: розовые очки /rose-coloured spectacles/, солнце встает /sun rises/, горный хребет /mountain chain/, заря догорает /dawn fades/. In such a manner metaphors didn’t just fill the emptiness in unnamed objects (or expeled their primary meaning), but also encouraged language development.

It’s hard to imagine Russian literature without metaphors. They in particular help to look at the things differently. Metaphors enrich an object, widen our vision of it, and make our language more beautiful and full above all.

If you’re a writer or poet, you’ve likely heard of metaphors—and might even be a fan of using them in your own writing. Metaphors bring power, persuasiveness, and beauty to the written word.

Here, we explain what a metaphor is and list 50+ metaphor examples in literature, popular songs, famous quotations, and more. We also provide you with some tips on how to come up with unique metaphors of your own.

What Is a Metaphor?

A metaphor is a literary device and figure of speech that compares two unalike things in a non-literal manner. Usually, the two ideas being compared will have one trait in common but differ in all other respects.

Metaphors are used by writers for clarity, rhetorical effect, and emphasis; they’re also used to add color to descriptions. You’ll see metaphors most often in poetry, fiction/prose, and song lyrics.

Now, how does a metaphor differ from a simile? A simile is a type of metaphor that specifically uses the words «as» or «like» to make a comparison between two unalike things.

By contrast, metaphors do not use either of these words; rather, they will say that «A is B» to make the comparison (even though we know A is not literally the same as B).

Basically, all similes are metaphors—but not all metaphors are similes.

A Comprehensive List of 53 Metaphor Examples

For this list, we include a wide array of metaphor examples, which are divided into the following categories:

• Metaphor Examples in Literature (including an extended metaphor example)
• Metaphor Examples in Famous Quotations
• Metaphor Examples in Music
• Everyday Metaphor Examples for Kids and Adults
• Original Metaphor Examples

Metaphor Examples in Literature

These metaphor examples come from famous works of fiction and poetry. We’ve also included an extended metaphor example, which is a long metaphor sustained for an entire paragraph, story, or poem (noted below).

«But thy eternal summer shall not fade» — William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.
— William Shakespeare, Macbeth

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
— William Shakespeare, As You Like It

«Her mouth was a fountain of delight.» — Kate Chopin, «The Storm»

«The sun was a toddler insistently refusing to go to bed: It was past eight thirty and still light.» — John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

«She’s all states, and all princes, I» — John Donne, «The Sun Rising»

«Hope» is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all
— Emily Dickinson, «‘Hope’ Is the Thing With Feathers»

«The sun in the west was a drop of burning gold that slid nearer and nearer the sill of the world.» — William Golding, Lord of the Flies

I’m a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
— Sylvia Plath, «Metaphors»

Marriage is not
a house or even a tent
— Margaret Atwood, «Habitation»

«She was a mind floating in an ocean of confusion.» — Caroline B. Cooney, The Face on the Milk Carton

Metaphor Examples in Famous Quotations

These next metaphor examples all come from quotations said or written by well-known writers, politicians, scientists, artists, and so on.

«Dying is a wild Night and a new Road.» — Emily Dickinson

«Time is the moving image of eternity.» ― Plato

«Books are the mirrors of the soul.» — Virginia Woolf

«All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.» — Albert Einstein

«Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.» — Pablo Picasso

«Your very flesh shall be a great poem.» — Walt Whitman

«Conscience is a man’s compass.» — Vincent van Gogh

«Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.» — George Orwell

«But there are many mountains yet to climb. We will not rest until every American enjoys the fullness of freedom, dignity, and opportunity as our birthright.» — Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address

«Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky.» — Kahlil Gibran

Metaphor Examples in Music

These metaphor examples were taken from popular song lyrics.

‘Cause, baby, you’re a firework
Come on, show ’em what you’re worth
— Katy Perry, «Firework»

Fire away, fire away
You shoot me down but I won’t fall
I am titanium
— David Guetta ft. Sia, «Titanium»

You are my fire
The one desire
Believe when I say
I want it that way
— Backstreet Boys, «I Want It That Way»

I’m a genie in a bottle
You gotta rub me the right way
— Christina Aguilera, «Genie in a Bottle»

Life is a highway
I want to ride it all night long
— Tom Cochrane, «Life Is a Highway»

Everyday Metaphor Examples for Kids and Adults

This section provides everyday metaphor examples for kids and adults. You’ll often hear them in day-to-day life. These metaphors are most often referred to as idioms, which are established sayings whose meanings are not deducible from the individual words within them.

While it’s fine (and perfectly normal!) to use idioms in everyday speech, they can sound clichéd in writing and should therefore be avoided.

All metaphors have been bolded (except when the entire sentence is the metaphor).

Eyes are the windows to the soul.

It’s raining cats and dogs out here!

The sound of the pouring rain was music to my ears.

Love is a battlefield.

Time is money.

He has a heart of stone.

She has the strength of an ox.

My best friend stabbed me in the back.

It’s time to face the music.

That name doesn’t ring a bell.

Our vacation plans are still up in the air.

I had to break the bank to be able to afford this car.

That exam was a piece of cake.

I like reading novels, but poetry isn’t really my cup of tea.

That toddler is one smart cookie.

Telling jokes is a good way to break the ice.

My cousin is kind of the black sheep of the family.

Original Metaphor Examples

Finally, here’s a short list of original metaphor examples to give you an idea as to how you could come up with your own metaphors.

She was sobbing so hard that her tears soon evolved into a fountain.

The forest was a lush, emerald ocean waiting to be explored.

His eyes were bright diamonds, leading me out of the darkness.

The job interview was the final battle, and she was ready to win.

He couldn’t imagine a world without her: she was his passion, his hope.

I began to drown in a sea of memories.

Hope is the last lingering flicker of a candle.

Whenever she goes running, she becomes a cheetah chasing its prey.

How to Use Metaphors in Writing: 3 Essential Tips

Whether you’re writing a poem, a short story, or something else entirely, knowing how and when to use metaphors can help your writing stand out in a more impactful way. Here are three tips to help you use metaphors more effectively.

#1: Avoid Clichés and Common Idioms

Although we gave you tons of metaphorical idioms above, in writing you will actually want to avoid using these, as they can make your writing sound unoriginal and boring.

Using clichés in anything you write will generally signal to the reader that you’re a lazy, uninspired writer who doesn’t think that it’s worth taking the time to come up with your own unique, creative metaphors.

Your Dictionary has a long list of clichés you’ll want to avoid when you write.

The only time you might want to use a clichéd metaphor or idiom is when you’re writing dialogue for a character and want to make their speech sound more realistic. Other than this, though, definitely avoid them!

#2: Use Logical Comparisons

A metaphor compares two unalike things, and while these things should certainly be very different from each other, they still must share some clearly detectable commonality. What this means is that you can’t compare two things that are so different that the metaphor won’t make any sense to the reader.

For example, if you wanted to use a metaphor to describe the rhythmic, pleasant, delicate melody of a flute, it wouldn’t be logical to compare it to something harsh, uncomfortable, or irregular.

Ultimately, your metaphors should be easily understood by the reader. If you’re not sure whether the meaning of your metaphor is clear or relevant, ask a friend or family member to read it (in context) and tell you whether they were able to interpret it easily.

#3: Don’t Clutter Your Writing With Too Many Metaphors

Finally, be sure to avoid clogging up your writing with too many metaphors.

Although metaphors are great devices for emphasis and poetic effect, they can also clutter your writing with way too many comparisons and make what you’re trying to say unclear and vague.

You risk not only alienating the reader when you have so many metaphors, but also lessening the impact of each metaphor, since they’ll all start to blend together and become less memorable.

If you’re ever in doubt, consider whether it might be best to avoid placing a metaphor in a certain spot and instead see how the text reads without it. Remember as well that you only want to use your strongest metaphors!

What’s Next?

Exactly how do similes differ from metaphors? Our in-depth guide provides a clear explanation and gives you some helpful examples of both figures of speech.

Working on a piece of fiction or trying to analyze a work for English class? Then you’ll want to read up on what the most important literary devices and poetic devices are and how they work.

What is the purpose of an epilogue? Learn how epilogues work in novels and get some tips on how to write your own.

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