Figurative Language

Imagery is a writer’s use of descriptive language that draws on the senses to create a “mental picture” that heightens the reader’s understanding of the work.

Personification is the linguistic portrayal of non-human objects or beings with distinctly human traits.

Onomatopoeia -> Bang! Crack! The lightning struck the shed.

Hyperbole -> I was so hungry I could have eaten a horse.

Alliteration -> Mei made a marvelous meal.

Cliché -> Laughter is the best medicine.

Idiom -> He has a real chip on his shoulder.

Metonymy -> The pen is mightier than the sword.

Paradox -> jumbo shrimp

Pun -> Where do you find giant snails? On the ends of giants’ fingers.

Synecdoche -> Music is my bread and butter.

For more information on figurative language, and for practice with these linguistic tools, see Purdue OWL Metaphor, Purdue OWL Creative Writing, education.com: Figurative Language.

Figurative language is a broad term that encompasses a host of ways to write creatively. Figurative use of language is the use of words or phrases that depart from literal meaning to achieve fresh, image-driven, and heightened meaning.

Metaphor is a kind of analogy that compares two unrelated subjects by asserting that in the described way, subject A is subject B.

Simile is a kind of analogy that uses a connective such as “like” or “as” to compare two unrelated subjects.

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