The simile is still figurative, because we’re just saying that she moves with some of the qualities of a deer, not just like one! After all, if she literally moved just like a deer, she might be graceful, but we would also worry about her sanity. But they are still different enough for it to be a simile. In this case, the comparison is much closer a deer and a person are at least both living creatures. Example #3Ĭonsider a description of a graceful woman:
But, describing a man as “as thin as a rail” evokes the image of a remarkably thin man, as a rail is a very thin pole. There can be no real similarity between a man and a rail. Using the sun to describe a girl’s smile gives you an idea of how bright her smile seems, you can just picture its radiance. The image below describes a girl’s smile. Similes find, or perhaps create, similarities in typically different things. In fact, there may be no real similarity between the things compared, such a woman and the sun. On the other hand, “She smiles like the sun” is a simile, as it compares a woman with something of a different kind- the sun. For example, “She looks like you” is a comparison but not a simile. A simile is different from a simple comparison in that it usually compares two unrelated things. Simile (pronounced sim- uh-lee) is a literary term where you use “like” or “as” to compare two different things and show a common quality between them.