Simile

A simile compares two different things, using the words “like” or “as” to draw attention to the comparison.

ex:

“The very mystery of him excited her curiosity like a door that had neither lock nor key.” —Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“He swung a great scimitar, before which Spaniards went down like wheat to the reaper’s sickle.” —Raphael Sabatini, The Sea Hawk

Metaphor

A metaphor compares two different things, similar to a simile. The main difference between a simile and a metaphor is that metaphors do not use the words “like” or “as”.

Unlike similes, metaphors don’t acknowledge that they’re comparisons. A literal-minded reader might mistake them for reality, which makes them more figurative and poetic.

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable

ex:

“The sun was a toddler insistently refusing to go to bed: It was past eight thirty and still light.” —John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.” —Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years

Personification

Personification is giving human characteristics to nonhuman or abstract things. This could be :

• physical attributes (“the eye of the needle”)
• emotional attributes (“a single lonely shoe”)
• or human actions (“a leaf dancing in the wind”)

“Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.”

—Emily Dickinson, “Because I could not stop for Death”

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” —John Hughes, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is a great exaggeration, often unrealistic, to add emphasis to a sentiment. If you’re especially busy, you might say,

“I have a million things to do”; if you’re bored, you might say,
“I have nothing to do.”

Neither are actually true, but the phrasing makes the statement more emphatic.

“There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County.” —Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“I heard all things in the heaven and in the Earth. I heard many things in Hell. How then, am I mad?” —Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart