Simile

A simile is a rhetorical figure expressing comparison or likeness that directly compares two things through some connective word such as like, as, so, than, or a verb such as resembles.

Although similes and metaphors are generally seen as interchangeable, similes acknowledge the imperfections and limitations of the comparative relationship largely than metaphors.

Examples:  Using 'as' - The use of 'as' makes the simile more explicit.

1.       She walks as gracefully as a cat.

2.       He was as hungry as a lion.

3.       He was as mean as a bull.

4.       That spider was as fat as an elephant.

5.       Cute as a kitten.

6.       As busy as a bee.

7.       As snug as a bug in a rug.

8.       Eyes as big as dinner plates.

 

Using ‘like’ - A simile can explicitly provide the basis of a comparison or leave this basis implicit. In the implicit case, the simile leaves the audience to determine for themselves which features of the target are being predicated.

It may be a type of sentence that uses 'as' or 'like' to connect the words being compared.

1.       She is like candy so sweet.

2.       He is like a refiner's fire.

3.       Her eyes twinkled like stars.

4.       He fights like a lion.

5.       He runs like a cheetah.

6.       She is fragrant like a rose.

7.       Gareth is like a lion when he gets angry.

8.       “For hope grew around me, like the twining vine,” (Coleridge - Dejection)

9.       "And the executioner went off like an arrow." -Alice in Wonderland

 

Sometimes similes are submerged, used without using comparative words ('like' or 'as').

Examples:   Without 'like' or 'as'

1.       "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate:" William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

2.       "How this Herculean Roman does become / the carriage of his chafe." William Shakespeare, Antony, and Cleopatra' Act I, sc. 3.