Figurative Language

Metaphor

• Definition: A comparison that says something is something else.
  
  

• Example: Her smile is sunshine.

Simile

• Definition: A comparison using like or as.
  
  

• Example: He runs like a cheetah.

Personification

• Definition: Giving human qualities to something not human.
  
  

• Example: The wind whispered through the trees.

Alliteration

• Definition: Repeating the same beginning sound in words.
  
  

• Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Onomatopoeia

• Definition: A word that sounds like the noise it describes.
  
  

• Example: Boom! Crash! Meow!

Imagery

• Definition: Words that create a picture in your mind using the 5 senses.
  
  

• Example: The sweet smell of cookies filled the warm kitchen.

Hyperbole

• Definition: An extreme exaggeration.
  
  

• Example: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!

Irony

• Definition: When the opposite of what you expect happens.
  
  

• Example: A fire station burns down.

Oxymoron

• Definition: Two opposite words put together.
  
  

• Example: Jumbo shrimp or deafening silence.

Idiom

• Definition: A phrase that means something different from the words.
  
  

• Example: It’s raining cats and dogs! (It means it’s raining a lot.)

Allusion

• Definition: A quick reference to something famous (like a book, movie, or person).
  
  

• Example: He’s a real Romeo with the ladies. (Alludes to Shakespeare’s Romeo.)