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What Is a Metaphor: Types, Examples and Use in Academic Writing
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What Is a Metaphor: Types, Examples and Use in Academic Writing

Don't miss out on metaphors that add depth and flair to your writing! Discover their meanings, linguistic power, effective uses and tips for creating your own!
Written by
Catherine B.
Published on
Feb 18, 2025
Table of contents
Having a hard time figuring out what a metaphor is? No sweat, let's break it down. A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two distinct things or ideas, pointing out a shared quality without using "like" or "as." The key is that the comparison isn't meant to be taken literally.
So if someone calls you "a firecracker," they don't mean you're a little explosive! Using metaphors can spice up your writing. And guess what? They're not just for poems or stories. You'll spot them in academic papers and even in casual conversations.
If you want to add metaphors to your toolkit, we at StudyPro have prepared this guide for you. Below, we’ll break down:
  • When and why metaphors are used;
  • 10 examples of metaphors;
  • How to use metaphors in academic writing.
  • 4 types of metaphors;
  • Comparison to similes, analogies, and allegories;
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When We Use Metaphors & Why

As figures of speech they are used across different contexts:
  • Everyday language. You’re probably using phrases like “this place is a zoo,” “hit the sack,” and “couch potato” just to spice up your everyday speech. These idioms are metaphors, and they help you make speech more vivid and expressive.
  • Business and marketing. In this field, metaphors typically help brands communicate their identities or convince potential customers to buy their products or use their services. For example, a vet office can promote itself as a “superhero” for pet owners.
  • Science and technology. Yes, they also exist in academic writing; they help explain abstract ideas or flesh out hypotheses. For example, thought experiments rely on metaphors to illustrate a point (e.g., Judith Jarvis Thomson’s Violinist thought experiment).
Metaphors are culture-specific. One may be common among Australians but will make Americans utterly confused. For example, do you know what it means to “throw a shrimp on the barbie”?
Key components of any metaphor:
  • Tenor: The idea or thing that the metaphor describes, i.e., its subject.
  • Vehicle: The idea or thing used to describe the tenor.
  • Ground: The shared characteristic between the tenor and the vehicle.
For example, in the metaphor “All the world’s a stage,” all the world is the tenor, and stage is the vehicle. The ground is that life is similar to a play, while both the world and the stage are places where the events unfold.
We use metaphors for a variety of purposes, including:
  • Creating a more vivid imagery;
  • Evoking stronger emotions;
  • Making abstract ideas more concrete and relatable;
  • Shaping decision-making.
Metaphors are potent literary devices because they create a link between new concepts and things we already know, and they transpose characteristics of one thing to another.
That’s why they can inspire or define whole movements. Just consider Donald Trump’s favorite slogan during his 2016 election campaign, “Drain the Swamp.”

10 Metaphor Examples

Here are ten metaphor examples to show them in action:
  1. Love is a battlefield.
  2. All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
  3. Her voice was silk.
  4. You’re a peach!
  5. He’s a walking dictionary.
  6. The internet is a vast ocean of information, and it’s easy to get lost in it.
  7. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
  8. Life is a tapestry of individual experiences.
  9. Stars are diamonds in the sky.
  10. Life is a playground, and you choose how to play.

How to Integrate Metaphors in Academic Writing: 4 Tips

Metaphors are handy not only for daily talk or literature but also a powerful resource for academic writing. They have a knack for taking complicated ideas and expressing them simply, often creating strong visuals that stick with the reader.
Metaphors are surprisingly versatile across different fields. For instance, you could talk about a political shift as a "rising tide" or illustrate the supply and demand balance by comparing it to a "scale in equilibrium." These comparisons boost how well people retain the information and make your writing more engaging.
Want to start weaving metaphors into your academic papers? Here are some suggestions:
  • Work on your vocabulary. You need a solid language understanding to craft effective metaphors and choose the best words and comparisons. When looking for a good fit, dig into synonyms and related concepts, and keep a notebook for your thoughts.
  • Study how others use them. Actively look for metaphors in your assigned readings. When you spot one, try to identify its type and components (vehicle, tenor, and ground), and analyze its effect on you.
  • Incorporate metaphors into your daily life. Don't limit your metaphor use to just academic assignments. Enjoy experimenting with words and their meanings in everyday conversations; this practice will make it easier to find the right comparison when writing an essay.
  • Use imaginative prompts for ideas. Sometimes, a creative prompt is all you need to get thinking metaphorically. Some great ones include "Are buildings living organisms?" (ideal for architecture students) and "Compare the meaning of life to an object."

Components & Different Types of Metaphors

Let's explain the 4 different types of metaphor:
  • Implied metaphor: Without an explicit vehicle mention;
  • Extended metaphor: Spanning several sentences or lines;
  • Dead metaphor: Overused metaphor that lost its potency; cliché;
  • Mixed metaphor: Combination of two unrelated metaphors.
Types of Metaphors-(Compressify.io).webp
Let’s explore each of these types of metaphors in more detail.

Implied Metaphor

Is an indirect comparison to an idea or object without the phrase literally denoting the metaphor’s vehicle. Instead of saying, “X is Y,” you imply that X is like Y because it shows similar characteristics.
Let’s compare implied metaphor examples to regular metaphors:
Type of Metaphor
Examples
Explicit metaphor
Knowledge is a weapon, so you should use it carefully
Implied metaphor
Wield knowledge carefully and strike with precision, or it will cause more damage than necessary.
In both examples, we compare knowledge to a weapon. But in the first sentence, we explicitly state so, while the second one only alludes to the idea of a weapon.
Implied or not, any metaphor has to be presented without a single typo or grammar error. Use our guide about common grammar mistakes and quickly weed out all mistakes from your writing.

Extended Metaphor

Also known as a sustained metaphor spans multiple sentences, paragraphs, or even whole works. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a good extended metaphor example.
Example 1
Example 2
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief.

William Shakespeare
I like to see it lap the Miles –
And lick the Valleys up –
And stop to feed itself at Tanks –
And then – prodigious step
Emily Dickinson
In the first example, Romeo compares Juliet to the sun in these four lines. In the second one, Emily Dickinson uses the iron horse as a metaphor for a train.

Dead Metaphor

Dead metaphors are those that have been used so often and for so long that they have lost their power to invoke a certain image or emotion. Some scholars also call them clichés.
“Kicking the bucket” is a good dead metaphor example here. Here are three more dead metaphors, along with their original meanings:
Metaphor
Original Meaning
Leg of a trip
Originally referred to the run that a ship made on a single tack
Time is running out
Originally referred to the sand running out in an hourglass
Broken record
Originally referred to records getting stuck repeating the same second over and over

Mixed Metaphors

It combines two unrelated metaphors, usually for a comic effect. As the imagery of the two base metaphors clashes in a mixed metaphor, it takes the reader by surprise.
Here are a couple of mixed metaphors examples to illustrate the point:
Metaphor Examples
Meanings
Time to get all our ducks on the same page.
Combines two common idioms, “get our ducks in a row” and “get on the same page”
This is hardly rocket surgery.
Combines “rocket science” and “brain surgery” to signify something overly complex and difficult

Metaphor vs Simile: Key Differences

Metaphor
Simile
She’s a shining star.
She shines like a star.
My love is a red rose.
My love is like a red rose.
Her opinions were the North Star for her children.
Her opinions were like the North Star for her children.
Similes typically don’t have as powerful an impact as metaphors because of their use of comparison words.
Struggle with getting commonly misspelled words right? Check out our guide to put an end to those mistakes.

Analogy vs Metaphor: Key Differences

While analogies and metaphors compare two items or concepts, their typical purposes and structures differ.
Analogies are generally more extended comparisons to explain how something works by detailing its similarities to something else. Because of this explanatory function, you'll find metaphorical comparisons more common in daily language, while analogies are frequently used in more technical or educational settings as figures of speech.
Here’s a metaphor vs analogy comparison to help you distinguish between the two:
Metaphor
Analogy
She’s an early bird.
Like an early bird, she rises before the sun rises over the horizon. Her energy levels peak before lunch, and she goes to bed at 9 pm.
In these examples, the analogy is longer and offers a detailed direct comparison between a person and an early bird.

Allegory vs Metaphor: Key Differences

People often see allegories as extended metaphors. They function as a storytelling or visual approach where symbolism is used to convey a deeper message, one that's typically quite complex and has several layers. Metaphors, in contrast, are shorter comparisons, usually contained within a sentence or just a couple of sentences.
Here’s a brief metaphor vs allegory comparison table:
Metaphor
Allegory
Philosophers are prisoners freed from a cave who can see the world as it is, as opposed to its shadows.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
Allegories are also meant to teach the reader a moral lesson. That’s why they’re often found in religious literature. That said, many works of fiction also employ allegories, like William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

In Closing

Metaphors are a potent literary device that can do more than just enrich your speech or writing. These carefully selected words can help your readers grasp the meaning of challenging concepts or convince them of your viewpoint.
If you don’t start coming up with metaphors immediately after reading this blog post, don’t worry. Thinking metaphorically is a skill, not an innate talent.
So, train yourself to draw parallels between seemingly unrelated things and objects, enrich your language and vocabulary, and draw inspiration from literature.
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Frequently asked questions

A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes one object or concept by comparing it to another unrelated one. It’s commonly used in literature, everyday language, education, and academic writing.
The structure of a metaphor includes the tenor, the vehicle, and the ground. Metaphors create vivid imagery and enrich your writing and speech. They also have a cognitive impact, forming people’s understanding and perception of objects or phenomena. Metaphors are culture-specific: some metaphors may be incomprehensible to a person with a different cultural background.
The most powerful metaphors suggest a link between unrelated things and are fresh and unique. To write one, you can also combine run-of-the-mill idioms into a new figure of speech; their power stems from the element of surprise.
Here are some powerful metaphors examples to inspire you:
  • Love is a battlefield.
  • Faith is a bridge over troubled waters.
  • Knowledge is a potent weapon.
Experiment by drawing parallels between different objects or concepts to incorporate powerful metaphors in your writing.
To come up with a good new metaphor, we suggest you:
  • Define metaphor subject, i.e., the tenor;
  • Brainstorm the potential vehicles (you can note them down in a notebook);
  • Read them out loud and revise them to polish off the comparison;
  • Condense the idea into a single sentence.
To be able to come up with good metaphors:
  • Expand your vocabulary;
  • Analyze how published authors use metaphors;
  • Practice your metaphorical skills in daily life.
Sources:
Jensen, D. (2006). Metaphors as a bridge to understanding educational and social contexts. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 36-54.
Kwan, M. (2022, October 19). Examples of Dead Metaphors and What They Mean. YourDictionary. https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/examples-dead-metaphors
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2025, January 25). Metaphor. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/metaphor
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