Definition of metaphor Metaphor

/mɛˈtʌfɔɹ/ - [metufor] - met•a•phor

We found 7 definitions of metaphor from 6 different sources.

What does metaphor mean?

Noun Plural: metaphors
metaphor - 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 similarity
		figure of speech, trope, image, figure language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense
		dead metaphor, frozen metaphor a metaphor that has occurred so often that it has become a new meaning of the expression (e.g., `he is a snake' may once have been a metaphor but after years of use it has died and become a new sense of the word `snake')
		mixed metaphor a combination of two or more metaphors that together produce a ridiculous effect

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metaphor (Noun)
The use of a word or phrase to refer to something that it isn’t, invoking a direct similarity between the word or phrase used and the thing described, but in the case of English without the words like or as, which would imply a simile.
metaphor (Noun)
The word or phrase used in this way. An implied comparison.

metaphor (n.)
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.

metaphor
A figure of speech in which an expression is used which refers to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a likeness or comparison.

Metaphor is language we use to compare things, but without using "like" or "as" - because that would be a simile. Another sort of metaphor is a "conceptual metaphor".

A metaphor very often uses the verb "to be": "love "is" war", for example, not that a writer sees "love "is like" war" (this is a simile).

Poetry includes much metaphor, usually more than prose.

Idioms use metaphors, or are metaphors: for example, the English phrase "to kick the bucket" means "to die".

Spam is an example that any email user knows about - this word was originally a metaphor, from "spam", a tinned meat people do not usually like. Servers putting unwanted email into somebody's inbox was similar to waiters putting unwanted spam into food. This was originally suggested by a Monty Python skit (funny scene). When we use a metaphor very often and we forget the old meaning, or forget that the two meanings are connected, this is a "dead metaphor".

Originally "metaphor" was a Greek word for "transfer". It came from "meta" ("change") and "pherein" ("carry"). So the word "metaphor" in English was a metaphor, too. Today in Greek, "metaphor" is a trolley (a thing that is pushed for carrying shopping or bags).