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A simile (/ˈsɪmɪli/) is a type of figure of speech that directly compares two unrelated things, using wording to explicitly make the comparison (often, with a grammatical structure of the type "x is like y").^[1][2] It is usually understood specifically to entail figurative comparison:^[3] thus "a wolf is like a dog" is merely a literal comparison, whereas the figurative "a man is like a wolf" is a simile.^[4]: 74 In the words of Michael Israel, Jennifer Riddle Harding, and Vera Tobin, "basically, a simile is just a way of describing a target by asserting its similarity to some unexpected entity".^[3]: 126

In English, similes are often made explicit by the word "like", as in "Odysseus is like a weasel", but the comparison in a simile can be made explicit in quite different ways, as in "the retirement of Yves Saint Laurent is the fashion equivalent of the breakup of the Beatles". Sometimes, extra information is included to explain precisely how the comparison is intended to work, as in "my kitchen is approximately the size of a postage stamp".^[3]

Similes are often compared (or contrasted) with metaphors. Similes compare two things explicitly, in English often using the words "like" or "as", whereas metaphors often create an implicit comparison (i.e., saying something "is" something else). Thus Odysseus is a weasel is a metaphor, while Odysseus is like a weasel is a simile.^[3]: 128

However, there are two schools of thought regarding the relationship between similes and metaphors. The first defines them as opposites, such that a statement cannot be both a simile and a metaphor — if it uses a comparison word such as "like" then it is a simile; if not, it is a metaphor.^[1][5][2][6] The second school considers metaphor to be the broader category, in which similes are a subcategory — according to which every simile is also a metaphor (but not vice-versa).^{[7][8][9][10]} These two schools reflect differing definitions and usages of the word "metaphor" and regardless of whether it encompasses similes, both agree that similes always involve a direct comparison word such as "like" or "as".

The word simile derives from the Latin word similis ("similar, like"), while metaphor derives from the Greek word metapherein ("to transfer").^[5] As in the case of metaphors, the thing that is being compared is called the tenor, and the thing it is being compared to is called the vehicle.^[11] Author and lexicographer Frank J. Wilstach compiled a dictionary of similes in 1916, with a second edition in 1924.

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Given that similes emphasize affinities between different objects, they occur in many cultures and languages.

For a list of words relating to similes, see the English similes category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Alliteration
• Analogy
• Description
• Figure of speech
• Homeric simile
• Hyperbole
• Hypocatastasis
• Like (as a preposition used in comparisons)
• Metaphor
• Metonymy
• Personification
• Phono-semantic matching
• Tautology (language)
• Simile aria

• Michael Israel, Jennifer Riddle Harding, and Vera Tobin, "On Simile", in Language, Culture, and Mind, edited by Michel Achard and Suzanne Kemmer (CSLI Publications, 2004), pp. 123–35.
• Beck, Deborah (2023). The stories of similes in Greek and Roman epic. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108481793.

• Examples of Simile in Literature