Other forms: similes
A simile is a comparison using like or as — brave as a lion. A vivid simile, a mixed simile, use a simile.
The like or as is what makes it a simile rather than a metaphor, which asserts the comparison outright. The distinction is one of the first things taught in literary study and one of the most often muddled. Note that the Latin simile means a likeness, from similis, like — the same root as similar.
1nounsimileA comparison using like or as.
“The poet uses a simile to compare the moon to a silver coin.”
simile is a figure of speech.
Latin simile means a likeness, the neuter of similis, like. Similar, assemble and same come from the same likeness.
Proto-Indo-European
*sem-
Latin
simile — comparison, likeness, parallel
English, today
simile
Built from
From Latin simile (“comparison, likeness, parallel”) (first attested 1393), originally from simile, neuter form of similis (“like, similar, resembling”). Compare English similar.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA