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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Recent Examples of simile
Bank’s wry, matter-of-fact tone makes the stories’ many rueful asides, exquisitely funny similes and snappy one-liners all the more effective.
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Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 22 June 2024
In line with Persian poetry’s simile of flowers for youth, the music video captures the dramatic destruction of flowers set in vases.
—Nahid Siamdoust, Foreign Affairs, 6 Jan. 2020
Atkins recommends starting with metaphors and similes, which Swift often employs.
—Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY, 19 Apr. 2024
Only now, in London, does the simile make sense, but the Indian student had to be himself translated in order to grasp it.
—James Wood, The New Yorker, 1 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for simile 
Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 22 June 2024
In line with Persian poetry’s simile of flowers for youth, the music video captures the dramatic destruction of flowers set in vases.
—Nahid Siamdoust, Foreign Affairs, 6 Jan. 2020
Atkins recommends starting with metaphors and similes, which Swift often employs.
—Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY, 19 Apr. 2024
Only now, in London, does the simile make sense, but the Indian student had to be himself translated in order to grasp it.
—James Wood, The New Yorker, 1 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for simile
Thesaurus Entries Near simile
Cite this Entry
“Simile.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/simile. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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