You probably think you're speaking plain English. You aren't. Not even close.
Whenever you say you're "feeling under the weather" or that a project is a "piece of cake," you’ve stepped away from literal reality and into the world of creative linguistics. Honestly, if we only spoke literally, life would be incredibly boring. Imagine telling someone your heart is "literally" breaking; you’d be in the back of an ambulance, not at a bar crying over an ex. That gap between what we say and what we actually mean is where we find the figure of speech.
It’s the secret sauce of communication. It's how we make sense of a world that is often too complex for "just the facts."
So, What Is Figure of Speech Anyway?
Basically, a figure of speech is a word or phrase that possesses a separate meaning from its literal definition. It can be a metaphor, a comparison, or even a deliberate exaggeration. Linguists often call this "figurative language." We use it to add color, emphasize a point, or make a concept easier to swallow.
Think about the way you talk to your boss. If you say, "I’m swamped," you aren't actually standing in a marsh with cattails and frogs. You're using a metaphor to describe a high volume of work. That’s it. That’s the whole trick.
But why do we do it?
Humans are wired for stories. Our brains respond more intensely to sensory language than to dry data. When you hear the word "leathery," your sensory cortex—the part of the brain that perceives touch—actually lights up. Literal language is a data transfer. Figurative language is an experience.
The Heavy Hitters: Metaphors and Similes
Most people get these two mixed up. It’s fine. Even professional writers have to double-check their work sometimes.
A simile is the shy cousin. It uses "like" or "as" to make a comparison. "He’s as brave as a lion." "She runs like the wind." It’s a gentle suggestion that two things share a quality.
A metaphor, on the other hand, is a bold-faced lie that tells a deeper truth. It doesn't say something is like something else; it says it is that thing. "Life is a roller coaster." No, it’s not. It’s a biological process involving carbon-based organisms. But the metaphor captures the ups, downs, and the occasional urge to vomit much better than a biology textbook ever could.
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The famous linguist George Lakoff argued in his book Metaphors We Live By that metaphors aren't just poetic flourishes. They actually shape how we think. If we view "argument as war" (He attacked my point, I defended my claim), we behave differently than if we viewed "argument as a dance."
The Underappreciated Power of Personification
This one is everywhere. We give human traits to non-human things. "The wind howled." "My alarm clock yelled at me." "The stock market is feeling jittery today."
We do this because the human brain is narcissistic. We understand the world best when we project our own emotions onto it. It’s easier to relate to a "stubborn" car that won't start than it is to think about cold engine oil and a dead battery.
Hyperbole: Because We’re All Drama Queens
"I’ve told you a million times."
"I’m so hungry I could eat a horse."
"This bag weighs a ton."
Unless you are a very specific kind of giant, none of these things are true. This is hyperbole. It’s intentional exaggeration used for emphasis. In a digital world where we’re constantly fighting for attention, hyperbole has become our default setting. Everything is "the best thing ever" or "a total disaster."
The danger? Hyperbole fatigue. When everything is "mind-blowing," nothing actually is.
Oxymorons and the Beauty of Contradiction
Language is weird because humans are weird. We love things that shouldn't make sense but somehow do. An oxymoron pairs two contradictory terms to create a new meaning.
- Deafening silence (You know that feeling when a room is so quiet it actually hurts your ears?)
- Bittersweet
- Only choice
- Random order
These aren't mistakes. They are attempts to capture the nuance of reality. Life isn't always black and white; it’s usually a messy, gray oxymoron.
The Weird World of Idioms
If you're learning English as a second language, idioms are your nightmare. An idiom is a figure of speech where the meaning cannot be deduced from the individual words.
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If you tell a non-native speaker to "break a leg," they might think you’re threatening them. In reality, you’re wishing them luck. If you say someone "kicked the bucket," you’re using a centuries-old euphemism for death.
Idioms are deeply cultural. In Japan, if you have "a wide face," it means you have many friends. In French, to "have the cockroaches" means you’re feeling depressed. Understanding a figure of speech often requires understanding the history and heart of the people who speak it.
Why Your SEO and Marketing Need This
If you’re writing for the web, you might think you should stick to literal keywords. You’d be wrong.
Google’s algorithms—specifically things like BERT and Gemini—are now incredibly good at understanding context. They recognize intent. If someone searches for "breaking the ice," they aren't looking for a literal ice pick. They’re looking for social tips.
Using figures of speech makes your content feel human. It builds E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) because AI, while getting better, still struggles with the "soul" of figurative language. It often sounds too perfect, too "on the nose." Real human writing is slightly messy, a bit metaphorical, and highly evocative.
The Irony of "Literally"
We have to talk about the word "literally." It has undergone a linguistic shift that drives purists crazy. People now use "literally" as a figure of speech to mean "figuratively."
"I literally died laughing."
No, you didn't. If you did, you wouldn't be posting that TikTok. But the word has evolved into an intensifier. Even the Oxford English Dictionary has acknowledged this secondary usage. It’s a meta-figure of speech—a word that has become its own opposite just to help us express how much we mean what we're saying.
How to Use Figurative Language Without Being Cringe
There is a fine line between being "poetic" and being "that person who tries too hard."
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- Avoid Clichés: "Thinking outside the box" is a figure of speech that has been used so much it’s now a hollow shell of a thought. If a phrase feels like it belongs in a corporate HR manual from 1998, kill it.
- Be Specific: Instead of a generic metaphor, try something fresh. Instead of saying a room was "as hot as an oven," maybe it was "as hot as a Tuesday in July in a car with black leather seats."
- Know Your Audience: If you’re writing a technical manual for a nuclear reactor, maybe dial back the hyperbole. If you're writing a blog post about travel, let the metaphors fly.
- Don't Mix Them: "We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it" is a malaphor—a mix of two different figures of speech. Unless you’re trying to be funny, stick to one.
The Cultural Impact of the Figure of Speech
We see this everywhere in entertainment. Songwriters live and die by the metaphor. When Taylor Swift says "loving him was red," she isn't talking about a color palette; she's evoking an entire emotional spectrum. When rappers use wordplay and "punny" figures of speech, they are demonstrating linguistic dominance.
In politics, figures of speech are weapons. "Drain the swamp," "Iron Curtain," "The Great Society." These aren't just slogans; they are metaphorical frames that change how millions of people perceive reality.
Actionable Steps for Better Communication
Stop worrying about the technical names. You don't need to know what "synecdoche" or "metonymy" means to use them effectively (though, for the record, saying "all hands on deck" is synecdoche because "hands" represents the whole person).
Instead, focus on the feeling.
Next time you're writing an email or a social post, look for the "flat" sentences. Those are the ones that are 100% literal. Try to inject one comparison. One piece of imagery.
Don't just say the market is "volatile." Say it's "acting like a toddler on a sugar crash."
Notice how that second sentence gave you a visual? That’s the power of the figure of speech. It turns listeners into observers.
Putting it into Practice
- Audit your bio: Is your LinkedIn or Twitter bio a list of literal facts? Change one line to a metaphor that describes your work ethic or personality.
- Listen for them: For the next hour, count how many figures of speech you hear in conversation. You’ll be shocked.
- Read more poetry: Even if you hate it. Poets are the elite athletes of figurative language. Reading them trains your brain to see connections between unrelated things.
At the end of the day, understanding what is figure of speech isn't about passing a grammar test. It's about unlocking a more vivid way of experiencing the world. It’s the difference between seeing in black and white and seeing in 4K.
Start looking for the metaphors in your own life. You might find that you’re a much more creative person than you gave yourself credit for. Stop being literal. Start being expressive. The world has enough data; it needs more flavor.