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Which of the following common English expressions contains a simile?

simile

[sim-uh-lee] / ˈsɪm ə li /
NOUN
comparison
Synonyms
Antonyms


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 simile is arresting: modern European proponents of welfare-state liberalism likened to a dying class of 19th-century hereditary nobles, confident in their rightness and desperate to rest.

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 5, 2025

He once used an unexpectedly shocking simile to denounce what he termed "hypocritical clericalism".

From BBC Apr. 22, 2025

“The simile with the DNA is more a metaphor but in some way, there exists the connection as mentioned for solving paths.”

From Salon Nov. 13, 2024

Later, when asked about his evolution as a coach, Harbaugh described himself as open to change and used a mall-entrance simile to make his point.

From Los Angeles Times Sep. 4, 2024

People were more often-he searched for a simile, found one in his work-torches, blazing away until they whiffed out.

From "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury

In a 1944 letter, he noted that he sometimes found Welty’s gorgeous metaphors and similes a distraction, “touching something outside the story so vividly that for a moment the mind shifts away from the theme.”

From The Wall Street Journal Nov. 27, 2025

Another song, “Runaway Train,” is an upbeat collaboration with Jon Randall that wouldn’t be out of place on mainstream country radio, savoring its similes: “You’ve got a heart like a runaway train/screaming down the mountainside.”

From New York Times Jan. 24, 2024

Boras then went into one of his similes and word plays.

From Seattle Times Nov. 8, 2023

Ted came to England as a broken man with a gentle smile on his face, a head full of homespun similes, cornpone puns and a heart bursting with Midwestern niceness.

From Salon Jun. 1, 2023

But whenever you hear bad poets declaiming their bad poetry, filled with foolish similes and ugly rhymes, you will know which of the meads they have tasted.

From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman




Vocabulary lists containing simile


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