as in analogies
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 metaphors
The production wears its metaphors lightly with a wink and a purr.
—
Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2026
What about forests, given my fondness for tree metaphors?
—Elena Megalos, Longreads, 31 Mar. 2026
Threads become metaphors for relationships—fragile yet resilient, personal yet interconnected.
—Olga Garcia-Mayoral, Miami Herald, 31 Mar. 2026
His appetite for complexity was increasingly indulged as a means of branding cities and institutions, and his novel forms were deployed as blunt metaphors to absorb and obscure contradictions rather than negotiate them in material and spatial terms.
—Julian Rose, Artforum, 26 Mar. 2026
Sports metaphors are often used to talk about leadership, O’Neil says, but there’s something unique to boxing that hits home for these senior-level women who, according to McKinsey research, often lack mentorship, sponsorship and overall corporate support to thrive.
—Jennifer Liu, CNBC, 25 Mar. 2026
Such metaphors abounded in the trial.
—Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
The use of Boïto’s Mefistofele in Batman Begins turns the film and the opera into metaphors for each other.
—Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 15 Mar. 2026
There are metaphors aplenty to interpret in a thriller about a town that goes bonkers when 17 kids go missing in the middle of the night and everybody points to their teacher (Julia Garner).
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 12 Mar. 2026
Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2026
What about forests, given my fondness for tree metaphors?
—Elena Megalos, Longreads, 31 Mar. 2026
Threads become metaphors for relationships—fragile yet resilient, personal yet interconnected.
—Olga Garcia-Mayoral, Miami Herald, 31 Mar. 2026
His appetite for complexity was increasingly indulged as a means of branding cities and institutions, and his novel forms were deployed as blunt metaphors to absorb and obscure contradictions rather than negotiate them in material and spatial terms.
—Julian Rose, Artforum, 26 Mar. 2026
Sports metaphors are often used to talk about leadership, O’Neil says, but there’s something unique to boxing that hits home for these senior-level women who, according to McKinsey research, often lack mentorship, sponsorship and overall corporate support to thrive.
—Jennifer Liu, CNBC, 25 Mar. 2026
Such metaphors abounded in the trial.
—Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
The use of Boïto’s Mefistofele in Batman Begins turns the film and the opera into metaphors for each other.
—Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 15 Mar. 2026
There are metaphors aplenty to interpret in a thriller about a town that goes bonkers when 17 kids go missing in the middle of the night and everybody points to their teacher (Julia Garner).
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 12 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for metaphors
Noun
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The storylines and analogies Brown uses vary in familiarity.—
Haley Sawyer,
Daily News,
4 Apr. 2026
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As Trump fumbles with the Pandora’s Box he’s broken open, there’s no shortage of historical analogies to choose from.—
Ishaan Tharoor,
New Yorker,
30 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Other options, such as red light therapy caps, are non-invasive devices that use low-level light therapy to stimulate hair follicles and increase density.—
Cindy Krischer Goodman,
Sun Sentinel,
9 Apr. 2026
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Reviewing those can determine if more specific devices are covered by Cinch’s plans.—
Caroline Ernst,
USA Today,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
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In those earlier pictures, metaphysical conceits became visual and dramatic gambits as the filmmakers set out to colonize the vast interior worlds of, respectively, the mind and the spirit.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
6 Mar. 2026
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One of Yellow Letters’s most interesting conceits is that German cities play Turkish ones throughout.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
26 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Metaphors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/metaphors. Accessed 12 Apr. 2026.
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