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Which of the following is an example of a metaphor?

metaphor

[met-uh-fawr, -fer] / ˈmɛt əˌfɔr, -fər /
NOUN
figure of speech, implied comparison
Synonyms
Antonyms
WEAK
plain speech


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The somatic metaphor has seized the punditry—the AI industry is tumbling forward uncontrollably at the hands of its private leaders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

The New Zealand landscape does echo the rolling hills of Central California, in a dry season, but it’s a dreary vision, hardly the paradise of Steinbeck’s memory, book or metaphor.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

That title is something of a metaphor, about connecting to a deep, abiding spirituality accessible to us all.

From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2026

Take “Reinstall,” where she uses the reformatted hard drive as a metaphor for—well, it’s hard to say what, exactly, but it sounds good when she’s singing it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

Lead them around by the nose; that is a metaphor.

From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

To extend the horror-movie metaphors even further, Trump is such a crude cartoon character that if he isn’t the Terrifier then maybe he’s Pinhead from “Hellraiser.”

From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026

"The proliferation of those struck me," Vara told Front Row, adding that the story also had a lot of metaphors, also prevalent in writing generated by AI.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

The movie’s metaphors are mixed; its sense of purpose is poetic and assured.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

And I wasn’t entirely thrilled with “Backrooms” getting lost in the maze of its metaphors, either.

From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026

Roughly: the more “rhetorical” it sounds—the more stuffed with extended metaphors, elaborate verbal patterning, and five-dollar words—the higher the style.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith


Vocabulary lists containing metaphor

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