metaphor
NounUS[met-uh-fawr]/ˈmɛtəfɔr/3 syllables
Open English WordNet
Noun (1)metaphors
- a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarityType of trope, figure of speechKinds dead metaphor, mixed metaphor, synesthetic metaphor
Word of the day · Oct 9About this word
pedanticadjective
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Noun metaphor, figure of speech
- Spanish
- metáfora
- French
- métaphore
- German
- Metapher
- Italian
- metafora
- Portuguese
- metáfora
- Turkish
- mecaz
- Russian
- мета́фора metáfora
- Arabic
- اِسْتِعَارَة istiʕāra
- Chinese
- 比喻 bǐyù
- Japanese
- メタファー metafā
22 more languages
- Dutch
- metafoor
- Polish
- metafora
- Swedish
- metafor
- Greek
- μεταφορά metaforá
- Korean
- 은유 eunyu
- Indonesian
- metafora
- Vietnamese
- ẩn dụ
- Hungarian
- metafora
- Portuguese (PT)
- metáfora
- Chinese (Trad.)
- 比喻 bǐyù
- Albanian
- metaforë
- Catalan
- metàfora
- Czech
- metafora
- Danish
- metafor
- Esperanto
- metaforo
- Finnish
- metafora
- Georgian
- მეტაფორა meṭapora
- Latvian
- metafora
- Lithuanian
- metafora
- Norwegian
- metafor
- Romanian
- metaforă
- Serbo-Croatian
- metafora
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
met′a·phor′ (mĕt′ȧ-fôr′ or mĕt′ȧ-fẽr), noun
Origin: F. métaphore, L. metaphora, fr. Gr. μεταφορά, fr. μεταφέρειν to carry over, transfer; μετά beyond, over + φέρειν to bring, bear.
Rhetoric The transference of the relation between one set of objects to another set for the purpose of brief explanation; a compressed simile; e. g., the ship plows the sea. Abbott & Seeley. “All the world's a stage.” William Shakespeare
☞ The statement, “that man is a fox,” is a metaphor; but “that man is like a fox,” is a simile, similitude, or comparison.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54