What is a metaphor?

Build vocabulary skills with our comprehensive test. Practice with flashcards and multiple choice questions, each with hints and explanations. Boost your language proficiency!

Multiple Choice

What is a metaphor?

Metaphor is a figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else, creating a direct comparison that highlights a shared quality. It treats the two things as equivalent in that moment, which makes the idea vivid. For example, saying “time is a thief” suggests time can steal moments, conveying a sense of loss without literally meaning time is a person. This is different from a simile, which would say time is “like” a thief and use words such as like or as. Describing a classroom as a zoo uses a strong image to convey chaos and busyness, not to claim the room is literally a zoo. The other choices don’t fit the idea: rhyme is about sound patterns, a narrative technique is about how a story is told, and a grammatical error relates to language rules. Metaphor directly links two things to deepen meaning and image.

Metaphor is a figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else, creating a direct comparison that highlights a shared quality. It treats the two things as equivalent in that moment, which makes the idea vivid. For example, saying “time is a thief” suggests time can steal moments, conveying a sense of loss without literally meaning time is a person. This is different from a simile, which would say time is “like” a thief and use words such as like or as.

Describing a classroom as a zoo uses a strong image to convey chaos and busyness, not to claim the room is literally a zoo. The other choices don’t fit the idea: rhyme is about sound patterns, a narrative technique is about how a story is told, and a grammatical error relates to language rules. Metaphor directly links two things to deepen meaning and image.

More practice questions