Associations to the word «Metaphor»

Wiktionary

METAPHOR, noun. (uncountable) (figure of speech) 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. (countable) (rhetoric) The word or phrase used in this way. An implied comparison.
METAPHOR, noun. (countable) (GUI) The use of an everyday object or concept to represent an underlying facet of the computer and thus aid users in performing tasks.

Dictionary definition

METAPHOR, noun. 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.

Wise words

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.
Noam Chomsky