Metaphor

How to spell metaphor

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce metaphor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does metaphor mean?

1. nounA figure of speech in which one thing is described as being another to suggest a likeness, without using 'like' or 'as'.

Metaphor in a sentence

• Calling the city a jungle is a vivid metaphor.

• The writing coach explained how a single metaphor can carry a whole argument.

Where does metaphor come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes from the Greek metaphora, meaning 'a transfer' or 'a carrying across', built from meta- 'across, beyond' and pherein 'to carry or bear'. The literal sense was wonderfully physical: to make a metaphor is to carry a word away from its usual meaning and lay it onto something else. Greek thinkers, notably Aristotle, used the term as a precise tool of rhetoric, and it passed through Latin metaphora and Old French metaphore before settling into English in the 1500s. The same pherein root for carrying turns up in surprising relatives such as 'phosphorus' (the light-bearer) and even 'ferry'. For spelling, it helps to remember the two distinct Greek parts, meta plus phor, which is why the word ends in -phor rather than the -for you might expect.

How the word is built

• meta- (across, beyond)
• -phor (from Greek pherein: to carry, to bear)