as in metaphor
grammar
a phrase that uses the words like or as to describe someone or something by comparing it with someone or something else that is similar
"She's as fierce as a tiger" is a simile, but "She's a tiger when she's angry" is a metaphor.
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of simile
The simile is novel and yet the sort of thing a young woman would think; there is assonance and consonance seesawing across the sentence, which is slow and gorgeous rather than quick and thrilling.
—
Joanna Biggs, Harper's Magazine, 2 Feb. 2024
These circumstances conducive to socialization are most obviously available for young people on athletic teams, but the sports simile is easily applicable to young people in marching band, theater productions, student council, volunteer and community settings and the robotics club.
—Jeff Nelligan, Baltimore Sun, 4 Dec. 2024
Later, when asked about his evolution as a coach, Harbaugh described himself as open to change and used a mall-entrance simile to make his point.
—Dylan Hernández, Los Angeles Times, 4 Sep. 2024
As the simile suggests, the pen could be used as a weapon, producing militant verses that would advance the nationalist cause.
—Maggie Doherty, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for simile
Joanna Biggs, Harper's Magazine, 2 Feb. 2024
These circumstances conducive to socialization are most obviously available for young people on athletic teams, but the sports simile is easily applicable to young people in marching band, theater productions, student council, volunteer and community settings and the robotics club.
—Jeff Nelligan, Baltimore Sun, 4 Dec. 2024
Later, when asked about his evolution as a coach, Harbaugh described himself as open to change and used a mall-entrance simile to make his point.
—Dylan Hernández, Los Angeles Times, 4 Sep. 2024
As the simile suggests, the pen could be used as a weapon, producing militant verses that would advance the nationalist cause.
—Maggie Doherty, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for simile
Recent Examples of Synonyms for simile
Noun
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That last part is an apt metaphor for the city, which is on its sixth or 20th reinvention of itself, the days in which the Big Three auto companies created more than 470,000 jobs in the city and state of Michigan in the late ’70s are long gone.—
David Aldridge,
New York Times,
29 Apr. 2025
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While Nathan Fielder can still pay off his absurdly meticulous re-creation of a Houston airport terminal and the dozens of mimicked airline crew members and Panda Express workers inside it, the captain/co-pilot dynamic is proving to be an endlessly elastic metaphor.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
28 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Simile.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/simile. Accessed 3 May. 2025.
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