Metaphor
Figures of speechA figure of speech that names one thing as another, without a comparison word, fusing the two images.
Example
"All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players"
A metaphor brings two realities together by fusing them: you don't say one thing resembles another, you say it is the other. Unlike a simile, it drops the comparison word ("like," "as") — and that ellipsis is its power, because the reader performs the connection themselves.
A metaphor can state both terms ("the moon, a golden sickle") or only the figurative one, letting context carry the meaning. When it stretches across several sentences or a whole text, it becomes an extended metaphor. It is one of the most potent devices in fiction and poetry alike: a precise metaphor condenses in a few words what description would take ten lines to explain.
In the workshop
Beware of dead metaphors ("the foot of the mountain"): they no longer evoke an image. A good metaphor surprises without confusing.
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