Simile | EPFL Graph Search

Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?

Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.

A simile (ˈsɪməli) is a figure of speech that directly compares two things. Similes differ from metaphors by highlighting the similarities between two things using comparison words such as "like", "as", "so", or "than", while metaphors create an implicit comparison (i.e. saying something "is" something else). This distinction is evident in the etymology of the words: simile derives from the Latin word similis ("similar, like"), while metaphor derives from the Greek word metapherein ("to transfer"). As in the case of metaphors, the thing that is being compared is called the tenor, and the thing it is being compared to is called the vehicle. Author and lexicographer Frank J. Wilstach compiled a dictionary of similes in 1916, with a second edition in 1924. "O My like a red, red rose." "A Red, Red Rose," by Robert Burns. John Milton, Paradise Lost, a Homeric simile:::As when a prowling Wolf, Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey, Watching where Shepherds pen their Flocks at eve In hurdl'd Cotes amid the field secure, Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the Fold: . . . . . . So clomb this first grand Thief into God's Fold William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. Stopping her from going was like trying to catch a bullet with a pair of tweasers, impossible. Learning to drive was like a deer learning how to walk for the first time. Stumbling until you get it right. Similes are used extensively in British comedy, notably in the slapstick era of the 1960s and 1970s. In comedy, the simile is often used in negative style: "he was as daft as a brush." They are also used in comedic context where a sensitive subject is broached, and the comedian will test the audience with response to subtle implicit simile before going deeper. The sitcom Blackadder featured the use of extended similes, normally said by the title character. For example: Baldrick: I have a plan, sir. Blackadder: Really, Baldrick? A cunning and subtle one? Baldrick: Yes, sir.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related concepts (8)

Figure of speech

A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from ordinary language use in order to produce a rhetorical effect. Figures of speech are traditionally classified into schemes, which vary the ordinary sequence of words, and tropes, where words carry a meaning other than what they ordinarily signify. An example of a scheme is a polysyndeton: the repetition of a conjunction before every element in a list, whereas the conjunction typically would appear only before the last element, as in "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"—emphasizing the danger and number of animals more than the prosaic wording with only the second "and".

Analogy

Analogy is a comparison or correspondence between two things (or two groups of things) because of a third element that they are considered to share. In logic, it is an inference or an argument from one particular to another particular, as opposed to deduction, induction, and abduction. It is also used of where at least one of the premises, or the conclusion, is general rather than particular in nature. It has the general form A is to B as C is to D.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole (haɪˈpɜːrbəli; adj. hyperbolic ˌhaɪpərˈbɒlɪk) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and creates strong impressions. As a figure of speech, it is usually not meant to be taken literally. 'Hyperbole' is derived from the huperbolḗ by way of Latin. The word is composed from hupér 'above, beyond' and bállō 'throw'.