Figurative Language
Authors use figurative language to create a special effect or feeling. Figurative language helps the reader understand the text better and better imagine the events and the characters.
Here are some examples of figurative language:
- Figure of Speech
- The meaning of each word separately does not tell the reader what the figure of speech means. An idiom is an example of a figure of speech.
Example: Birds of a feather flock together. (People who are similar hang out together.)
- Simile
- Compares two, unlike things by using the words “like” or “as.”
Example: Her hair was like a dark cloud. (Her hair was very dark.)
- Metaphor
- Compares two, unlike things to say one thing is another.
Example: The child was a butterfly. (The child was moving around lightly.)
- Personification
- Gives nonhuman things human characteristics.
Example: The leaf danced in the gentle breeze. (The way the leaf moved in the wind seemed like dancing.)
- Hyperbole
- An obvious exaggeration that is not meant to be taken seriously.
Example: He was so tired he could sleep for a century. (He could sleep for a long time.)
- Allusion
- An allusion is an indirect reference to another text, usually literary work, or well-known characters in literature.
Example:
Ron did not give up his Frankensteinian creative desire, a robot. (Reference to Mary Shelly’s book Frankenstein).
- Verbal Irony
- While using verbal irony, the speaker says the opposite of what he or she means.
Example: “I am having a marvelous time, dear,” Mother said as she continued her fights with the endless number of mosquitoes.
- Pun
- The humorous use of a word or phrase to suggest its different possible meanings. It is also a play on words; the words are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning.
Example: I was on pins and needles at the acupuncture clinic. (play on the words pins and needles)
8th Grade Writing - Figures of Speech Lesson