as in analogies
an elaborate or fanciful way of expressing something
"it's raining cats and dogs" is just a colorful metaphor and not a meteorological announcement
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Recent Examples of metaphors
You’re surrounded by cartoon obstacles, fake pirates and a giant dinosaur — all metaphors that don’t require explanation.
—
Ana Gutierrez, Austin American Statesman, 11 Feb. 2026
In the modern American workplace, the romantic metaphors are getting uncomfortably literal.
—Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 11 Feb. 2026
Elon Musk has a habit of announcing the future in sweeping metaphors, then quietly changing course when reality intrudes.
—Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 9 Feb. 2026
Malinin mastered the once-impossible 4½-rotation jump in just months using Arutyunyan’s signature coaching style of metaphors and biomechanics.
—Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2026
Postnature, then, demands a subjectivity that is plural and decenters the human; a postnatural ethics seeks to blur the boundaries between human and nature, crafting new metaphors for the permeability and porousness of life-forms.
—Catherine Taft, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
Though the rope suggests tidy metaphors of unity, coherence, and formal integrity, a playful but insistent messiness effloresces in Simms’s entanglements, throwing any seeming wholeness into question.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 30 Jan. 2026
The latter, of course, gives better info, and the former gives fleeting metaphors and nearly faints from embarrassment.
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 29 Jan. 2026
Ricks’s metaphors are perhaps too much like lightning, more about light than heat.
—Katie Kadue, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
Ana Gutierrez, Austin American Statesman, 11 Feb. 2026
In the modern American workplace, the romantic metaphors are getting uncomfortably literal.
—Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 11 Feb. 2026
Elon Musk has a habit of announcing the future in sweeping metaphors, then quietly changing course when reality intrudes.
—Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 9 Feb. 2026
Malinin mastered the once-impossible 4½-rotation jump in just months using Arutyunyan’s signature coaching style of metaphors and biomechanics.
—Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2026
Postnature, then, demands a subjectivity that is plural and decenters the human; a postnatural ethics seeks to blur the boundaries between human and nature, crafting new metaphors for the permeability and porousness of life-forms.
—Catherine Taft, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
Though the rope suggests tidy metaphors of unity, coherence, and formal integrity, a playful but insistent messiness effloresces in Simms’s entanglements, throwing any seeming wholeness into question.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 30 Jan. 2026
The latter, of course, gives better info, and the former gives fleeting metaphors and nearly faints from embarrassment.
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 29 Jan. 2026
Ricks’s metaphors are perhaps too much like lightning, more about light than heat.
—Katie Kadue, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for metaphors
Noun
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Baseball has a lot of good analogies for fatherhood, even if most of them break down rather quickly.—
Caleb Harris,
Austin American Statesman,
4 Feb. 2026
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Flame analogies aside, the two discussed sustainable technology, raising human standards of living, and humanoid robots.—
John Werner,
Forbes.com,
28 Jan. 2026
Noun
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In September, a swarm of Russian drones flew into Poland's airspace, prompting NATO aircraft to scramble to intercept them and shoot down some of the devices.—
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS,
Arkansas Online,
6 Feb. 2026
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The countries announced a framework for the agreement in November, saying Argentina would ease restrictions on a range of American imports, including cattle, dairy products, medicines, chemicals, machinery, medical devices and vehicles.—
Isabel Debre,
Los Angeles Times,
6 Feb. 2026
Noun
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There’s something about those ideas that are big, silly, cinematic, surreal conceits that drew me in.—
John Hopewell,
Variety,
24 Nov. 2025
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But even her most impish conceits are undergirded by a fundamental conviction, a belief in the power of art to wake the dead.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
20 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Metaphors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/metaphors. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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