Figurative Language

What is figurative language?

Using language in a way to create a special effect, made up of words that don’t mean what they first appear to mean.

Simile-Comparisons between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”

Examples:

• I am as busy as a bee

• Fighting with my sister is like fighting a war

Metaphor- Comparison between two unlike things without using the word

“like” or “as”

Examples:

• My heart’s a stereo and it beats for you

• Her eyes were fireflies

Personification- When a writer gives human characteristics or traits to an

object or ideaExamples:

• The candle flame danced in the dark.

• Thunder grumbled during the night.

• Her smile hugged me

Hyperbole-An exaggeration that is so dramatic that no one would believe it

was trueExamples:

• I’ve see this movie a million times

• I can smell pizza a mile away

Idiom- An expression that means something other than the literal meanings of its individual words.

Examples:

• Break a leg

• A piece of cake

• Don’t cry over spilt milk

Alliteration- The repetition of the same initial sound, letter, or group of sounds in

a series of words

Examples:

• Big Brown Bears

• Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore

Onomatopoeia-The use of words to imitate a natural sound or the sound made by an

object or an action

Examples:

• Boom!

• Snap, crackle, pop!