as in metaphors
grammar
a phrase that uses the words like or as to describe someone or something by comparing it with someone or something else that is similar
"She's as fierce as a tiger" is a simile, but "She's a tiger when she's angry" is a metaphor.
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Recent Examples of similes
Salazar-Thompson’s witty script — packed with hilarious metaphors and similes (like comparing a woman’s firm grip on her purse to that of a two-toed sloth on a branch) — make for a consistently amusing trip back in time.
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Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Mar. 2026
Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for similes
metaphors
Noun
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Threads become metaphors for relationships—fragile yet resilient, personal yet interconnected.—
Olga Garcia-Mayoral,
Miami Herald,
31 Mar. 2026
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His appetite for complexity was increasingly indulged as a means of branding cities and institutions, and his novel forms were deployed as blunt metaphors to absorb and obscure contradictions rather than negotiate them in material and spatial terms.—
Julian Rose,
Artforum,
26 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Similes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/similes. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.
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