What is Figurative Language? Types and Examples

Literal language tells readers what's happening. Figurative language makes them feel it. It's the difference between "she was angry" and "she was a storm looking for somewhere to break."

That second sentence isn't literally true. But it's figuratively true, and that's what makes it resonate! Figurative language communicates emotion, meaning, and sensory reality in ways that straightforward description can't quite reach.

In this post, we'll define figurative language, explore the most common types, look at examples from literature, and share practical tips for using figurative language to make your own writing more vivid, resonant, and alive.

What is figurative language?

Figurative language is language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that goes beyond or differs from their literal interpretation, in order to create a particular effect, convey emotion, or communicate ideas more vividly than straightforward description allows.

Literal language means exactly what it says. "The room was cold" is literal; it conveys a fact. Figurative language reaches beyond the fact to create an experience: "The room had the chill of a place that hadn't been loved in years." Both sentences communicate temperature. Only one makes you feel it.

Figurative language works by creating comparisons, associations, and images that communicate experience more directly than factual description. It's not reserved for poetry or "literary" fiction; it appears in everyday speech too. Everyday idioms like "it's raining cats and dogs," "time flies," and "break a leg" are all examples of figurative language, so common that we barely register them as figures of speech anymore. In fiction, the goal is to use figurative language that feels fresh, specific, and true. language that creates a new image rather than reaching for a worn-out one.

Figurative language is also one of the primary tools writers use to create imagery, the sensory, evocative detail that makes readers feel present in a scene. When imagery is at its most vivid, figurative language is almost always behind it.

Common types of figurative language

Simile

A simile is a comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as." The comparison is explicit, and readers can see the link being drawn, which makes similes one of the most accessible forms of figurative language for beginning writers. Consider this example from Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles:

He smiled, and his face was like the sun.

Similes work by borrowing qualities from the object of comparison and applying them to the subject. "The classroom was as quiet as a held breath" doesn't just tell you it was silent — it tells you the silence was tense, temporary, waiting. The comparison does more work than the literal meaning could.

Metaphor

A metaphor is a direct comparison between two unlike things that states one thing is another, without using "like" or "as." Unlike a simile, a metaphor doesn't signal its comparison; it asserts it directly, which creates a stronger, more immersive effect. Using the example above, if Miller had written that "his face was the sun," the image in the reader's mind would be slightly different and would convey something different about both the narrator and the character being described.

"Life is a highway" is a simple metaphor. An extended metaphor develops a comparison across multiple sentences or even an entire passage. In either case, the idea is to create vivid imagery in the reader's mind.

Personification

Personification gives human qualities, emotions, or behaviors to non-human things, such as inanimate objects, animals, abstract concepts, or natural phenomena. It makes the non-human feel relatable and emotionally accessible, allowing readers to engage with an angry storm or a grieving city in ways they can't engage with purely literal description.

"The wind whispered through the trees" is a simple example. The wind isn't literally whispering, but the verb lends it an intimacy and gentleness that "the wind moved through the trees" lacks.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect, stating something is more extreme than it literally is to convey the intensity of a feeling or to create a comic or dramatic effect.

"I've told you a million times" is hyperbole you might use in everyday conversation. "She had a thousand things on her mind and room for not one more" is hyperbole in fiction; it communicates overwhelm more effectively than any literal description of those thousand things.

Symbolism

Symbolism uses a concrete object, place, or event to represent an abstract idea, concept, or emotion. It differs from other types of figurative language in that it operates across a whole narrative. A symbol accumulates meaning over time as it recurs and deepens, rather than producing its effect in a single sentence.

A famous example of symbolism in literature is the green light in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The green light is a physical object in the novel's world, but it also represents more than it is: Gatsby's impossible dream to repeat the past and his desire for the unattainable Daisy.

Readers should feel that the symbol belongs in the story before they feel that it means something. Heavy-handed symbolism, where the author's intention is too visible, risks pulling readers out of the story rather than deeper into it.

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of closely connected words. It works primarily through sound, creating rhythm, musicality, and emphasis that make a phrase more memorable and pleasurable to read.

In prose, alliteration should be used with restraint. Used deliberately, it creates rhythm and emphasis. Used too frequently, it draws attention to itself and away from the story. Readers start to hear the technique rather than experience the narrative.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia refers to words that phonetically imitate or suggest the sound they describe. Buzz, crash, sizzle, murmur, hiss, thud, crack — each creates its sound directly in the reader's ear through the word itself.

"The fire crackled and spat in the grate" does something that "the fire burned in the grate" doesn't. It puts readers in the room, hearing the fire, in a way that connects the written word to a physical, auditory experience. Onomatopoeia is auditory imagery built directly into language.

Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that pairs two contradictory or opposing terms to create a new, paradoxical meaning. The tension between the two terms produces an idea or image that neither word could achieve alone.

Common examples include "deafening silence," "bittersweet," "living death," and "cruel kindness." Each pairing holds two opposites in tension, and that tension is what gives the phrase its resonance. "Deafening silence" communicates something that neither "loud" nor "silent" could; a silence so complete it overwhelms.

Synecdoche

Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to refer to the whole, or, less commonly, the whole is used to refer to a part. It's a way of letting one element stand in for a larger thing, creating both compression and specificity.

Everyday language is full of synecdoche. "All hands on deck" uses "hands" to mean the whole crew. "Give us this day our daily bread" uses "bread" to mean food in general. "The White House announced today" uses "the White House" to refer to the entire administration. In each case, a part of the whole carries the weight of the whole.

In fiction, synecdoche creates economy and vividness. The distinction between synecdoche and metonymy — a related literary device where an associated thing stands in for another (the "crown" for the monarchy, the "pen" for writing) — matters more in literary analysis than in everyday writing. What matters for fiction writers is the underlying principle: sometimes a single, specific part of something communicates more than the whole ever could.

Allusion

An allusion is a brief, often indirect reference to a person, place, event, or another literary work. It allows writers to layer familiar associations and deeper meanings onto their own stories without bogging down the plot with lengthy explanations. For example, referring to surveillance as "Big Brother" is an allusion to George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.

How to use figurative language effectively

Reach for the unexpected comparison

The most effective figurative language surprises readers with a comparison they haven't encountered before; one that feels immediately, recognizably true once they read it, but that they would never have thought of themselves.

Resist the first comparison that comes to mind. It's usually the comparison everyone reaches for, which is why it's been used so often that it's stopped creating any image. Push past the obvious toward the specific and the unexpected. Ask: what does this actually remind me of? What is the truest comparison I can make, not just the most available?

Match figurative language to voice and perspective

The comparisons a character reaches for should reflect who they are, including their background, their experience, and their way of seeing the world. A chef's metaphors might draw on food and cooking. A soldier, on the other hand, might refer to tactics and terrain. A child's figurative language would likely be limited to the small, immediate world of childhood experience.

Figurative language filtered through a specific point-of-view character does double duty: it creates vivid imagery and reveals character simultaneously. A metaphor that belongs to the author rather than the character breaks the reader's immersion, making them feel the writer behind the prose rather than the character in front of them.

Let symbols develop organically

Introduce symbolic objects or images as natural story elements before they begin to carry thematic weight. The symbol should belong in the story before it means something. Heavy-handed symbolism, where the author's intention is too obvious, pulls readers out of the narrative. The best symbols feel discovered by readers, not installed by writers.

Read your figurative language aloud

Figurative language lives in sound as much as in meaning. Reading your prose aloud reveals whether a metaphor is working, whether an alliterative phrase flows naturally or feels forced, and whether the rhythm of a sentence supports or undermines its figurative content. If a line of figurative language makes you stumble when you read it aloud, it almost certainly needs revision.

Ready to make your writing richer?

Figurative language is one of the most powerful tools available to fiction writers. It lifts prose from mere description into something that creates a genuine experience for readers. It works by reaching beyond the surface level to find comparisons, images, and sounds that communicate meaning more vividly, efficiently, and memorably than straightforward description ever could.