Simile

A Simile () is a figure of speech that directly compares two things. Similes differ from metaphors by highlighting the similarities between two things using comparison words such as "like", "as", "so", or "than", while metaphors create an implicit comparison (i.e. saying something "is" something else). This distinction is evident in the etymology of the words: simile derives from the Latin word similis ("similar, like"), while metaphor derives from the Greek word metapherein ("to transfer"). As in the case of metaphors, the thing that is being compared is called the tenor, and the thing it is being compared to is called the vehicle.

Author and lexicographer Frank J. Wilstach compiled a dictionary of similes in 1916, with a second edition in 1924.