Figurative Language Terms & Examples

a comparison of two things using the words “like” or “as” 

• Simile
• Metaphor
• Irony
• Oxymoron

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5A

CCSS.L.5.5A

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

giving human qualities to animals or inanimate objects

• Simile
• Irony
• Personification
• Oxymoron

Tags

CCSS.L.6.5A

a phrase that has two opposite words

• Simile
• Irony
• Personification
• Oxymoron

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.5A

an extreme exaggeration

• Hyperbole
• Irony
• Pun
• Oxymoron

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.5A

the opposite of what is meant (situational, verbal, dramatic)

• Hyperbole
• Irony
• Pun
• Oxymoron

Tags

CCSS.L.8.5A

a comparison of two unlike things without using the words “like” or “as”

• Simile
• Metaphor
• Pun
• Alliteration

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5A

CCSS.L.5.5A

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

a phrase that means something different than its literal meaning

• Idiom
• Metaphor
• Pun
• Alliteration

Tags

CCSS.L.8.5A

repetition of the same initial consonant letter or sounds

• Idiom
• Metaphor
• Onomatopoeia
• Alliteration

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

CCSS.L.6.5

CCSS.RL.2.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

a word that imitates the sound that it represents

• Idiom
• Metaphor
• Onomatopoeia
• Alliteration

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.3

CCSS.RL.5.5

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

a “humorous” substitution of words that sound alike but are different in meaning

• Idiom
• Pun
• Onomatopoeia
• Alliteration

Tags

CCSS.L.8.5A