as in analogy
an elaborate or fanciful way of expressing something
"it's raining cats and dogs" is just a colorful metaphor and not a meteorological announcement
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Recent Examples of metaphor
For the monks or clerics, it is presented as a material substance, carried like a sack of gold on the demon’s back; the metaphors used are monetary or economic, as though the monks owe ordered syllables to God instead of the monetary tithe their vows of poverty render unnecessary.
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JSTOR Daily, 31 Oct. 2025
One that isn’t slurred together from such a familiar combination of backwater lawlessness, faux-polite menace, and profoundly sweaty animal metaphors.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 31 Oct. 2025
But the visual metaphor resonates across the album at large.
—Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Money, 30 Oct. 2025
The metaphors of two competitive tennis players vying for the love of a third are not buried especially deep in this film, but no one came here looking for Tolstoy.
—John Ortved, Vogue, 29 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for metaphor
JSTOR Daily, 31 Oct. 2025
One that isn’t slurred together from such a familiar combination of backwater lawlessness, faux-polite menace, and profoundly sweaty animal metaphors.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 31 Oct. 2025
But the visual metaphor resonates across the album at large.
—Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Money, 30 Oct. 2025
The metaphors of two competitive tennis players vying for the love of a third are not buried especially deep in this film, but no one came here looking for Tolstoy.
—John Ortved, Vogue, 29 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for metaphor
Recent Examples of Synonyms for metaphor
analogy
Noun
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This produces an incredibly dense representation of usages and meanings, in which analogy becomes a matter of geometry.—
James Somers,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
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Regarding the question about the future of sports betting, especially the prop betting market, King gave a perfect analogy.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
29 Oct. 2025
Video
When Body Parts Are Also Verbs
Head, shoulders, metaphors, and toes
Cite this Entry
“Metaphor.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/metaphor. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
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