Figurative Language 1st & 2nd 9 Weeks

the practice of using an object, color, or a word to represent an abstract idea

• allegory

• allusion

• paradox

• symbolism

explains an idea by comparing it to another thing that is more familiar, relatable, or visual

Ex: Time is money, so spend it wisely.

• allusion

• analogy

• metaphor

• simile

a brief and indirect reference to a famous person, place, thing, or idea

Ex: Chocolate cake is my Achilles' heel!

Ex: She's a good swimmer, but she's no Ariel.

• allusion

• allegory

• paradox

• symbolism

when human qualities are given to non-human things (animals, objects, ideas, etc.)

• allusion

• hyperbole

• idiom

• personification

a metaphor that is developed through several lines of writing or throughout an entire poem

Ex: Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune - without words,

And never stops at all,

And the sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chilliest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

• allegory

• allusion

• extended metaphor

• paradox

an implied or hidden comparison between two unlike things that does not use like or as

• idiom

• extended metaphor

• metaphor

• simile

a comparison between two unlike things using like or as

• idiom

• metaphor

• personification

• simile

a statement that may seem absurd or contradictory but yet can be true, or at least makes sense

Ex: The more you try to keep someone close, the further away you’ll push them.

• allegory

• allusion

• paradox

• symbolism

a combination of words (usually two) that seem to contradict each other

• idiom

• personfication

• oxymoron

• simile

a common expression that is not meant to be taken literally

• idiom

• oxymoron

• personification

• simile