Figurative language

In practice

Literal language says exactly what it means: "I'm very hungry." Figurative language bends the words to make the meaning land harder: "I could eat a horse." Nobody believes the speaker will eat a horse, and nobody misses how hungry they are. That gap between the words and the meaning is where every figure of speech does its work.

Writers use it to make the abstract concrete, to compress, and to give a voice its character. A character who says "my boss is a volcano" tells us about the boss and about themselves in four words. Used with care, figurative language is the difference between a line people repeat and a line they forget.

In a screenplay, keep it where it belongs. Dialogue can be as figurative as the character who speaks it. Action lines should stay mostly literal, because they describe what the audience will see; one sharp figure that tells the reader how a moment should feel is worth more than a paragraph of imagery the camera cannot film.

Two characters, two kinds of language

Mark's line is literal: a fact and a plan. Jess answers with hyperbole and a metaphor, and the scene stops being about a car. The contrast between the two kinds of language shows the gap between them before either of them names it.

What figurative language is

Figurative language is any use of words that departs from their ordinary, literal meaning to create an effect. The traditional name for each technique is a figure of speech, and rhetoric has named hundreds of them since antiquity. A reader recognizes the departure, understands why it was made and takes away the meaning behind it.

The opposite is literal language, where words mean exactly what they say. "The sun set at seven" is literal; "the sky caught fire" is figurative. Neither is better. Most good writing moves between the two, using plain statement for clarity and figures for emphasis, emotion and memorable images.

Idioms are figurative language that has hardened into everyday speech: "break a leg," "spill the beans," "under the weather." They still work figuratively, but readers no longer picture the image, which is why they are useful for natural dialogue and weak for fresh description.

Types of figurative language

The most common types are metaphor ("the classroom was a zoo"), simile ("as cold as ice"), personification ("the wind whispered"), hyperbole ("I've told you a million times") and understatement ("it's a bit warm" in a heatwave). Each one compares, exaggerates or reframes something so the reader sees it differently.

Sound-based figures shape how a line feels in the mouth: alliteration repeats opening sounds ("Peter Piper picked"), onomatopoeia imitates a sound ("buzz," "crash"), and assonance repeats vowel sounds. Others play with meaning: irony says the opposite of what is meant, an oxymoron joins opposites ("deafening silence"), metonymy names something by what it is associated with ("the White House said"), and synecdoche uses a part for the whole ("all hands on deck").

Lists of "the 7" or "the 12 types" are teaching conventions rather than fixed rules, and they vary by textbook. What matters for a writer is knowing what each figure does: compare, exaggerate, soften, sound or surprise. Choose the one whose effect the moment needs.

Figurative language examples in film and literature

Shakespeare's plays are dense with it: "Juliet is the sun" (metaphor), "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs" (metaphor), and Macbeth's "Life's but a walking shadow" (metaphor and personification at once). Poetry depends on it even more. Langston Hughes asks whether a dream deferred will "dry up like a raisin in the sun," a simile that gave Lorraine Hansberry the title for her play.

Film dialogue uses it to make lines quotable. "Life is like a box of chocolates" in Forrest Gump is a simile; "I'm the king of the world!" in Titanic is hyperbole; "Houston, we have a problem" in Apollo 13 is understatement that makes a disaster sound calm. Each one tells you something about the speaker in the moment.

Screenwriters also use figures in action lines, sparingly, to tell the reader how a moment should feel. A line like "the silence after the gunshot is enormous" is hyperbole that a director and an actor can translate into a choice. It works because it describes an effect the film can create, rather than an image it cannot.

How to use figurative language effectively

Use a figure when plain words would undersell the moment. If a character is merely tired, say so; if they are exhausted in a way that changes how they act, a figure ("she moved like someone wading through wet cement") can make the reader feel it. Every figure should do a job: clarify, intensify, characterize or surprise.

Make it fresh and fit it to the speaker. Clichés such as "heart of gold" or "crystal clear" have stopped producing images, so readers glide past them. A figure drawn from the character's job, history or obsession does two jobs at once: it describes the thing and reveals the person describing it.

Keep the figures consistent. A mixed metaphor ("we'll cross that bridge when it rains") jolts the reader out of the scene. When a passage piles up figures, cut to the strongest one. Readers remember one striking image far longer than five competing ones.