100 examples of metaphors for children and adults | read worksheets (2023)

A metaphor is a comparison between two different things that does not use the wordAsocon.Metaphors can be powerful, but they can also be hard to pin down at times.This page contains 100 examples of metaphors.

metaphor

Compare two different things WITHOUT using the wordAsocon.

I have divided the metaphors on this page into two lists. The first list contains metaphors that are easier to understand and identify. We'll call these "easy metaphors," though they may not be easy to understand. The second list contains fifty metaphors that are more difficult to understand. We will call these "difficult metaphors." Another way of looking at it would be likea list of metaphors for children and adults.Without further ado, here is the list of simple metaphors:

Examples of metaphors for advanced readers

The bars indicate line breaks.

  1. The detective listened to his stories with a poker face.
  2. She was sure that life was a fashion show.
  3. A typical teenager's bedroom is a disaster area.
  4. What storms then shook the ocean of my dream!
  5. Children were roses that grow in cement gardens, beautiful and abandoned.
  6. Kisses are the flowers of love in bloom.
  7. His cotton candy words didn't sit well with him.
  8. Kathy arrived at the supermarket with an army of children.
  9. His eyes were fireflies.
  10. He wanted to sail in the ocean of love, but he just disappeared into the desert.
  11. I got lost in a sea of ​​nameless faces.
  12. John's response to the problem was a Band-Aid, not a solution.
  13. The cast on Michael's broken leg was an ankle cast.
  14. Cameron has always had a fondness for the fruit of knowledge.
  15. The promise between us was a delicate flower.
  16. It is a rolling stone and has grown on the bones.
  17. He begged her forgiveness, but Janet's heart was like a cold iron.
  18. She was just a trophy for Ricardo, one more object to possess.
  19. The path of resentment is easier to follow than the path of forgiveness.
  20. Katie's plan for college was a house of cards on a crooked table.
  21. The wheels of justice turn slowly.
  22. Hope shines - a stone in the dark.
  23. She cut him off with her words.
  24. The interview was a rope ladder that fell from the sky.
  25. Her hair was a river of gold cascading over her shoulders.
  26. The classroom computer was an old dinosaur.
  27. Laughter is the music of the soul.
  28. David is a worm for what he did to Shelia.
  29. The teacher planted the seeds of wisdom.
  30. Phyllis, oh Phyllis, my life is a gray day
  31. Each blade of grass was a small bayonet, pointed firmly at our bare feet.
  32. Daggers of heat pierced his black T-shirt.
  33. Let your eyes contemplate this beaten sky.
  34. The drums of time rolled and fell silent.
  35. His hope was a fragile seed.
  36. Seninja robot squadIt came on TV, the boys were glued to their seats.
  37. Words are the weapons with which we strike.
  38. He let such beautiful pearls of wisdom slip from his mouth without even realizing it.
  39. Scars are the road map to the soul.
  40. The quarterback launched nothing but rockets and bombs across the field.
  41. We are all shadows on the wall of time.
  42. My heart filled with a sea of ​​tears.
  43. When the teacher leaves her little kingdom, she breaks her magic wand.
  44. Cow Moo's tail is a piece of string that has been completely torn off where it grows.
  45. My dreams are flowers for which you are a bee.
  46. Clouds streaked across the sky.
  47. Each flame of fire is a precious stone that belongs to all who behold it.
  48. And so, with hope and fear, I entered the winter forest of our lives.
  49. My words are lead chains.
  50. But in his face was a flame; / I wonder if she might have been thinking the same thing.

100 examples of metaphors for children and adults | read worksheets (1)

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(Video) Metaphor Examples

Examples of advanced metaphors

Here are fifty more challenging examples of metaphors. The bars indicate line breaks.

  1. Light streams into the shell of the midnight sky, purple, amber and pink.
  2. People don't court death when there's still sweets in life to taste.
  3. In capitalism, money is the soul of society, but charity is the soul.
  4. whose world is but the tremor of a flare, / and heaven but the path of a grenade,
  5. Glory is the perfume of feats, / Of the flowers of chivalry and not of weeds!
  6. So I sit and quietly weave around this decaying form the delicate threads of rare and subtle thought.
  7. And whisper of rope and chain ring /
    They are music for the men who sail the Main.
  8. The school is still on the street, a ragged beggar basking in the sun.
  9. The child was our only prayer to an empty sky.
  10. Blind fools of fate and slaves of circumstance, / Life is a violinist and we all have to dance.
  11. Grind the gentle spirit of our humble reviews down to a powdery foam of abuse of salt.
  12. Laugh a drink from the cup of the deep blue sky.
  13. Now think: the story has many clever passages and contrived corridors.
  14. You are in London now, that great sea whose ebb and flow are both dull and noisy,
  15. His subtle ingenuity makes such a wound that the knife is lost in it.
  16. Waves of spam emails flooded his inbox.
  17. In the temple of my heart I hang these votive wreaths of faded memories for you.
  18. He cast a web of brightly colored words to capture the idle buzzers of the day.
  19. This job is the cancer of my dreams and aspirations.
  20. May this song be your rose, soft, fragrant and without thorns that hurt your chest.
  21. There, someone whose voice was a poisoned melody.
  22. A sweetness seems to exist in the midst of the dregs of past sorrows.
  23. So in this darkest space we call life
  24. Life is the night with its abundant dream visions, / Death is the awakening of the day.
  25. Then the lips loosen their tension
    and the pipe begins to slip, /
    Even small clouds of ash,
    falls softly next to you.
  26. The old days: when your smile was wine for me, your praise came from gold.
  27. Its tones are silver cast in sound.
  28. Beneath us the brown earth / Old and strong, / The best bed for the vagabonds;
  29. Love is a guest that arrives uninvited, / But after it arrives it asserts its rights;
  30. My house of life has worn out for years.
  31. He sees the sun in the distance, a wrinkled orange in a sky that has turned black;
  32. Three grimly fighting pines, runners in a race no one sees.
  33. But the rare herb, oblivion, hides from me.
  34. Cornflower yellow field is a copper scarf for sunburned women.
  35. Life: a lighted window and a closed door.
  36. Some days my thoughts are cocoons hanging from dripping branches in the gray forest of my mind.
  37. Men and women walk down the street, happy in the bright sapphire weather.
  38. The Existing Swan is a chant with accompaniment.
  39. At night the lake is an immense, unimaginative stillness.
  40. Cherry trees are seas of blossoms and softly fragrant and sweetly fragranced.
  41. The great golden apples of light hang from the long branch of the street and cast their light on the faces that float below, on the faces that float and blow.
  42. The night rose drips from its blue vase.
  43. When I'm in the mines of dark and still thoughts / Sometimes I dive in and find strange concepts,
  44. The branches were placed under a willow veil.
  45. He grabbed and cut ropes, pieces of sail, / thought that comfort was a fairy tale,
  46. Oh moon, your light is fading and now you're just a bow.
  47. Life is a night's dream, a fear among fears, / A naked runner lost in a storm of spears.
  48. This world of life is a desolate garden.
  49. And so I left with hope and fear / Into the winter forest of our lives;
  50. My soul was a sea without light and she was the storm.

Common ground state patterns over metaphors

anchor patterns

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4– Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyzing how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.5– Demonstrate understanding of pictures, relationships between words, and nuances in the meaning of words.

See all CCSS patterns related to metaphors

ELA-Standards: Literature

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.4– Determine the meaning of words and phrases used in a text and distinguish literal from non-literal language.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.4– Determine the meaning of words and phrases used in a text, including those that refer to important characters from mythology (for example, Hercules).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.4– Determine the meaning of words and phrases used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.4– Determine the meaning of words and phrases used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; Analyze the impact of a given word choice on meaning and tone.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.4– Determine the meaning of words and phrases used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; Analyze the effects of rhyme and other sound repetitions (eg, alliteration) on a specific line or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.4– Determine the meaning of words and phrases used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; Analyze the impact of certain word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4– Determine the meaning of words and phrases used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; Analyze the cumulative influence of specific word choices on meaning and tone (eg, how language evokes a sense of time and place, how it sets formal or informal tone).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4– Determine the meaning of words and phrases used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; Analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or particularly new, engaging, or beautiful language. (Include Shakespeare and other authors.)

(Video) What is a Metaphor?

ELA Patterns: Talk

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.5– Demonstrate understanding of pictures, relationships between words, and nuances in the meaning of words.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.5a– Explain the meaning of similes and simple metaphors (for example, beautiful as a picture) in context.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.5b– Recognize and explain the meaning of idioms, proverbs and common sayings.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.5a– Interpret images, including similes and metaphors, in context.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.5b– Recognize and explain the meaning of idioms, proverbs and common sayings.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.5a– Interpret idioms (for example, personification) in context.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.5a– Interpret idioms (for example, literary, biblical and mythological allusions) in context.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.5a– Interpret idioms (eg, verbal irony, puns) in context.

(Video) Similes, Metaphors, Onomatopoeia, Personification and Alliteration

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.5a– Interpret idioms (eg euphemism, oxymoron) in context and analyze their role in the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.5a– Interpret idioms (eg exaggeration, paradox) in context and analyze their role in the text.

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FAQs

What are 50 examples of metaphors? â€ș

List of metaphors
  • I could eat a horse: I am very hungry.
  • It all went pear shaped: to go wrong.
  • It's no skin off my nose: it doesn't affect me negatively (but it might affect others).
  • She is an open book: she has nothing to hide.
  • He wears his heart on his sleeve: he shows his feelings readily.

What are the 20 examples of metaphor? â€ș

Other examples of common metaphors are “night owl”, “cold feet”, “beat a dead horse”, “early bird”, “couch potato”, “eyes were fireflies”, “apple of my eye”, “heart of stone”, “heart of a lion”, “roller coaster of emotions”, and “heart of gold.”

What are 10 simple metaphors? â€ș

10 Metaphor Examples for Kids
  • “A Heart of Stone” Without a doubt, this is one of the best metaphors you can use with children. ...
  • “That Place Is a Zoo” ...
  • “It Is a Melting Pot” ...
  • “The Apple of My Eye” ...
  • “The Snow Is a White Blanket” ...
  • “The Tears Were a River” ...
  • “The Stars Are Dancing” ...
  • “You Are My Sun”

What is an example of a metaphor and answer? â€ș

For instance, if you say someone has a “heart of gold,” you're using a metaphor to describe their good nature. While the person's heart isn't literally made of gold, this type of figurative language communicates the point in an intuitive, sensible and poetic way.

What are the 7 deep metaphors? â€ș

According to the Zaltmans, there are seven deep metaphors: balance, journey, transformation/change, container, connection, resource, and control.

What are 5 good metaphors? â€ș

Here are the most common metaphors used in everyday life:
  • Life is a race and we never realise that we are running towards nothing!
  • He is the light of my life.
  • For this whole year, this room has become my prison.
  • Love is a fine wine!
  • My heart's a stereo and it beats for you!
  • She is happy as a clam.

What is a metaphor Grade 7 example? â€ș

What is a Metaphor? A metaphor shows a resemblance between two totally different objects by saying that one object is another. It compares these two unlike objects by identifying a single similar common characteristic. One example of the metaphor “Sport is war minus the shooting”.

What are the 8 metaphors? â€ș

In his book, Images of Organization, Gareth Morgan lays out eight metaphors for an organization: machines, organisms, brains, cultural systems, political systems, psychic prisons, instruments of domination, and flux and transformation.

What are the six metaphors? â€ș

Six “awful” metaphors
  • Dangerous reefs.
  • Self-interested shepherds.
  • Waterless clouds.
  • Trees in late autumn.
  • Wild waves.
  • Wandering stars.
Sep 6, 2017

What are 20 examples of similes? â€ș

Examples of Similes for Everyday Use
  • As slow as a sloth.
  • As busy as a bee.
  • As innocent as a lamb.
  • As proud as a peacock.
  • As fast as a cheetah.
  • As blind as a bat.
  • As bold as brass.
  • As cold as ice.

What is metaphors 5th grade? â€ș

Metaphors are basically a figure of speech that individuals use to compare things that aren't alike but do have one or more similarities. Unlike similes which describe two things directly (e.g. brave as a lion), metaphors' comparison is indirect and is usually stated as "something is something else."

What is a metaphor example for students? â€ș

A metaphor is a comparison which is not literally true. It suggests what something is like by comparing it with something else with similar characteristics. For example: 'My brother' is a piglet is a metaphor.

What is a metaphor for happy? â€ș

To show you are really happy with a metaphor, you could say something like 'I'm on cloud nine' or 'I'm over the moon! ' Even if, like most of us, you haven't been to the moon, you can still use that idiom.

What is 5 example of simile and metaphor? â€ș

Simile: Rapunzel's hair was as soft as clouds. Simile: Cinderella's slippers were as shiny as the sun. Metaphor: The snow is a white blanket. Metaphor: The calm lake was a mirror about what was to come.

What are 5 metaphors on sadness? â€ș

And, the different conceptual metaphors found are SADNESS IS NATURAL, SADNESS IS ILLNESS, SADNESS IS DOWN, SADNESS IS SUBSTANCE IN A CONTAINER, SADNESS IS A FLUID IN CONTAINER, SADNESS IS DARK, and SADNESS IS BAD TASTE.

What are the nine key metaphors? â€ș

Nine key metaphors for career are considered—the career as inheritance, construction, cycle, matching, journey, encounters and relationships, roles, resource, and story. These metaphors act as frameworks for much career theory, and each presents specific career issues.

What is the best metaphor ever? â€ș

Famous metaphors
  • “The Big Bang.” ...
  • “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. ...
  • “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ...
  • “I am the good shepherd, 
 and I lay down my life for the sheep.” ...
  • “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.” ...
  • “Chaos is a friend of mine.”

What are some deep metaphors? â€ș

Some examples of metaphors for life include:
  • "Life is a song; we each get to write our own lyrics."
  • "Life is a puzzle; you can only see the picture when you put all the pieces together."
  • "Life is a garden; with care and love you can cultivate beautiful flowers."
Feb 14, 2022

What is an example of a metaphor about family? â€ș

My family is a garden of fruit in the summer morning. Dad is the grape the greatest one of all. Mum is the soil that holds us together. My brother is the lemon the sourest of all.

What is a metaphor for a friend? â€ș

A Good Friend is like a four-leaf Clover

A four-leaf clover is a rare and unique thing. And so is a good friend! It is one of the best metaphors for friendship. It describes how lucky you are to have found such a particular person in your life.

What is an example of metaphor Class 11? â€ș

Examples of Metaphors

My mom has a heart of gold. My friend's sister, Sharon, is a night owl. My hands were icicles because of the cold weather. You just have to consider the world a stage and act accordingly.

What is an example of metaphor Class 6? â€ș

Example: 1. He is a night owl. Owls generally do not sleep at night and therefore, a person who is awake at night is compared to an owl.

Which of the following is an example of a metaphor 10 points? â€ș

The correct answer is He is a big donkey. Metaphor is a word or phrase for one thing that is used to refer to another thing in order to show or suggest that they are similar. Here, a person, as denoted by 'he', is a human being who is said to be a donkey.

What are some metaphors about being homeless? â€ș

Like sociologists who use “class” and “stratification”, and physicists who use “black hole”, researchers who investigate homelessness use metaphors. To name just a few, we hear of “sliding” into homelessness, “pathways”, “revolving doors”, “exit points” and homeless “careers”.

What are examples of similes metaphors? â€ș

A simile makes a comparison using the words “like” or “as.” Example: The concert was so crowded, it felt like a million people were there. A metaphor makes the comparison directly, substituting one thing for another. Example: That test was a killer.

What is a creative metaphor? â€ș

A creative metaphor is an original comparison that calls attention to itself as a figure of speech. Also known as a poetic metaphor, literary metaphor, novel metaphor, and unconventional metaphor. Contrast with conventional metaphor and dead metaphor.

What is a metaphor for a butterfly? â€ș

The butterfly metaphor means that a small change can give rise to a big tidal wave. And you can't predict where or how. Seemingly unimportant acts, or omissions, can have great and unforeseen consequences. Here is a quote from Ben Franklin that details the cascading effects of a seemingly inconsequential oversight.

What is 1 type of metaphor? â€ș

Similes, hyperbole, antithesis, idioms, and metonymy are all types of metaphors as they use the practice of comparisons between two 'things.

What are the metaphors of church? â€ș

The metaphors include church as a community of citizens, church as household, church as building, and church as temple.

What are the three visual metaphors? â€ș

There are three types of visual metaphors: juxtaposition, fusion, and replacement. The three types have different levels of complexity based on the amount of inferences viewers need to make to come to an acceptable conclusion.

How many metaphors do we use? â€ș

By some estimates, we use metaphors every 25 words, but because metaphors are so embedded in our language, they often go unnoticed. Emerging psychological research tells us that something as simple as a single metaphor can have consequences for how we think.

What are 10 examples of similes using like? â€ș

Here are some commonly used similes in which like is used to signal the comparison:
  • fits like a glove.
  • runs like a deer.
  • chatters like a monkey.
  • moves like a snail.
  • sits there like a bump on a log.
  • eats like a pig.
  • swims like a fish.
  • stood out like a sore thumb.

What is a simile grade 11 examples? â€ș

Examples of Similes Using “Like”

She eats like a pig. She ran like lightning. He looks like a fish out of water. She slept like a log.

How do you find a metaphor? â€ș

See if the sentence uses a word such as “as” or “like” as a preposition. That is, it is comparing things explicitly. If it compares things without using prepositions such as “like” or “as” it is a metaphor. See what the metaphor is comparing.

What is a metaphor Year 6? â€ș

A metaphor is a word or a phrase used to describe something as if it were something else: For example, "A wave of terror washed over him." The terror isn't actually a wave, but a wave is a good way of describing the feeling. "Jess is dynamite." She's not made of dynamite, but it's a way to explain how exciting she is.

What are 3 metaphors about school? â€ș

Metaphors about school and education include: (1) Education is the key to new worlds. (2) School is a vaccine for ignorance. (3) Education is the ticket to prosperity. (4) Education sheds light on dark places.

What is a metaphor for angry? â€ș

anger is a hot fluid in a container: She is boiling with anger. (12) anger is fire: He's doing a slow burn. His anger is smoldering.

What is a good metaphor for smile? â€ș

You can see how with these smile simile and metaphor examples. Her smile was as cold and lovely as frost on a windowpane. His smile was like a sudden beam of sunlight illuminating the darkest corners of the room. Her smile flickered across her face like a hologram.

What are metaphors of mood? â€ș

Metaphor of mood is the exchanging system giving or demanding information or good and services, which determines the four basic speech function of statement, question, offer, and command.

What are 5 examples of metaphor and personification? â€ș

Here are a few examples:

Metaphor: His face was stone. Personification: The stone ignored us. Metaphor: The leaves are dancers. Personification: The leaves danced in the wind.

What are some examples of metaphor negative sentences? â€ș

Negative Metaphors

Conflict is also framed as a struggle:[8] we are "on a sinking ship with no lifeboat," "traveling a rocky road," or "working with a checkbook that won't balance."[9] These metaphors all suggest struggle, frustration, even hopelessness.

What is an example of a metaphor and a simile for kids? â€ș

A simile is a comparison between two things that uses the word like or as: Her smile is as bright as sunshine. A metaphor is a direct comparison between two things that does not use like or as: Her smile is sunshine.

What are great metaphors in life? â€ș

Some examples of metaphors for life include: "Life is a song; we each get to write our own lyrics." "Life is a puzzle; you can only see the picture when you put all the pieces together." "Life is a garden; with care and love you can cultivate beautiful flowers."

What are metaphors for being happy? â€ș

For instance, according to Kovecses (1991), there are many conceptual metaphors for happiness in English but three of them have been recognized as major metaphors: HAPPINESS IS UP 'I'm feeling up', 'I'm walking on air', HAPPINESS IS LIGHT 'She brightened up', HAPPINESS IS A FLUID IN A CONTAINER 'He's bursting with joy' ...

What is a super metaphor? â€ș

supermetaphor (plural supermetaphors) A grounding fact; a correspondance between the underlying truth and our ideas and constructions based on that truth. quotations ▌ An overarching metaphor; a metaphor that encompasses several sub-metaphors.

What is an example of metaphor Class 9? â€ș

Examples of Metaphors

My mom has a heart of gold. My friend's sister, Sharon, is a night owl. My hands were icicles because of the cold weather.

What is love metaphor? â€ș

Metaphors of love often compare the feelings of love to something more tangible, giving the reader something to think about as they ponder their emotions. Like many metaphor examples from literature, it's a useful writing technique.

What are emotional metaphors? â€ș

Al1 emotion metaphors have the same basic structure: they liken a certain psychological state (feeling) to a certain physiological state (sensation) or to another material phenomenon.

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