# Simile > A figure of speech that compares two unlike things using "like" or "as": "brave as a lion," "a smile like a switched-on light." The comparison is stated openly, which is what separates a simile from a metaphor. Also known as similes, epic simile ## In practice A simile works by keeping two things side by side and asking the reader to see what they share. "He ate like a man who had been told it was his last meal" tells you more about the scene than "he ate quickly": the speed, the desperation and a hint of dread all arrive at once, and the reader supplies the picture. On the page, the best similes are short and specific. A screenplay's action lines are read for what the camera will see, so a simile there should make a picture sharper ("the motel sign flickers like it's trying to remember its own name") rather than describe something no camera could film. In dialogue, a simile is a character choosing a comparison, and the choice says who they are. The common mistakes are clichés ("cold as ice," "busy as a bee"), which the reader skims past without seeing anything, and similes stacked three to a sentence, which make the writing about the writer. Pick one comparison, make it fresh, and make sure the two things are alike in the way that matters for the moment. ## A simile that tells us who is talking **A mechanic describes a marriage in her own terms** ``` INT. AUTO SHOP - NIGHT Rain on the roll-up door. JO (40s) wipes her hands on a rag while her younger sister TESS (30s) sits on an upturned bucket, still in her wedding-guest dress. TESS Everyone keeps asking if I'm sure about him. JO A good marriage runs like an old diesel. Loud, slow to start, and it'll outlive both of you if you change the oil. Tess laughs for the first time all night. ``` Jo could have said "marriage takes work." The simile says the same thing in the language of her trade, so it characterizes her while it gives the advice, and it is specific enough to be funny. The "like" keeps the comparison open: she is not claiming a marriage is an engine, only that the two behave alike. ## What a simile is A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things using "like" or "as": "brave as a lion," "her laugh was like a door slamming," "the town was as quiet as a held breath." The word comes from the Latin similis, meaning like or similar, and the comparison is always stated in the open. Every simile has the same three parts: the subject being described, the thing it is compared to, and the signal word that joins them. "Like" usually joins a noun ("swims like a fish"), and "as" usually works in pairs around an adjective ("as light as a feather"). Some similes use "than" or "resembles" instead, as in "quicker than a rumor." A simile does not have to be poetic. "It hit me like a truck" and "I slept like a baby" are everyday similes, so worn that we no longer notice them. Writers keep the device because a good one makes an abstract quality concrete: you cannot see loneliness, but you can see "a house with every light on and nobody home." ## Simile vs. metaphor Both compare unlike things. A simile says one thing is like another ("her voice was like velvet"); a metaphor says one thing is the other ("her voice was velvet"). The quick test is the signal word: if the comparison uses "like" or "as," it is a simile. The difference is one of confidence. A simile keeps the two things apart and invites the reader to notice the resemblance, which suits a careful narrator or a character thinking aloud. A metaphor fuses them, which suits certainty and strong feeling. "Life is like a box of chocolates" in Forrest Gump is a simile because Forrest is offering his mother's advice, not stating a law. Analogies are the third relative. An analogy uses a comparison to explain how something works, often over several sentences ("a heart is a pump: it pushes blood out and pulls it back"). A simile can be the seed of an analogy, but a simile on its own describes; it does not argue, and it rarely runs past a single sentence. ## Simile examples in literature and film Poetry has some of the most famous. Robert Burns writes "O my Luve is like a red, red rose," and William Wordsworth begins "I wandered lonely as a cloud." Langston Hughes asks whether a dream deferred might "dry up like a raisin in the sun," a line that gave Lorraine Hansberry the title of her play. Novelists use similes to set a voice. Raymond Chandler's detective Philip Marlowe is built from them: in Farewell, My Lovely a huge man in a loud suit looks "about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food," and the line tells you how Marlowe sees the world, sardonic and a little tired. Homer's epic similes in the Iliad run for several lines, comparing armies to waves or to flies around a milk pail. In film, similes live mostly in dialogue and voice-over. Forrest Gump's box of chocolates is the best known. Film noir voice-over borrowed Chandler's habit, which is why every parody of the genre opens with a detective comparing the city to something worn out. When a film translates a simile into images, it usually becomes a visual metaphor or a match cut: two shots placed side by side so the audience sees the likeness without being told. ## How to write a fresh simile Start from the quality you want the reader to feel, not from a familiar comparison. If a character's handshake should feel weak, ask what else is limp in a specific, surprising way: a wet sock, a lettuce leaf left in the sun, a balloon two days after the party. Each choice carries a different tone, so choose the one that fits the moment. Draw the comparison from the world of the story or the speaker. A farmer, a surgeon and a teenage gamer will each reach for different similes to describe the same fear, and that difference is characterization you get for free. A simile that could come from anyone is decoration; one that could only come from this character does two jobs at once. Then test it. Read the line aloud and ask whether the comparison makes you see the thing more clearly or makes you notice the writing. Cut any simile that explains what the scene already shows, replace any cliché you can finish before you reach the end of it, and keep no more than one per beat so each one lands. ## Official sources & context Sources reviewed Oct 28, 2026 - [Merriam-Webster — Simile](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/simile) [Refine every line in a character's voice with Dialogue Pass](https://www.inkwell.software/skills/dialogue-pass) ## Common questions ### What is a simile in simple terms? A simile compares two different things using "like" or "as" so you can picture one of them better. "The puppy was as soft as a cloud" helps you feel how soft the puppy was by comparing it to something you already know. ### What are some examples of similes? Everyday similes include "busy as a bee," "cold as ice," "sleep like a log" and "fits like a glove." Literary ones include Burns's "my Luve is like a red, red rose," Wordsworth's "I wandered lonely as a cloud" and Langston Hughes's dream that might "dry up like a raisin in the sun." ### What is the difference between a simile and a metaphor? A simile says one thing is like another, using "like" or "as" ("he fought like a lion"). A metaphor says one thing is the other ("he was a lion in battle"). Both are comparisons; the metaphor states it more boldly. ### Does a simile always use "like" or "as"? Almost always. Those are the usual signal words, but a simile can also use "than" ("quicker than a rumor"), "resembles" or "as if" ("he stared as if the wall had insulted him"). What makes it a simile is that the comparison is stated openly. ### Is every sentence with "like" a simile? No. "I like pizza" uses the verb, and "she looks like her mother" compares two similar things, two people, so it is a plain comparison. A simile compares things of different kinds, such as a person and an animal or a feeling and a weather pattern. ### What is an epic simile? An epic simile, also called a Homeric simile, is a long, detailed comparison that runs over several lines, often drifting into its own small scene. Homer's Iliad and Milton's Paradise Lost are full of them, comparing armies to swarms of bees or fallen angels to autumn leaves. ### Why do writers use similes? Similes make abstract or unfamiliar things concrete, add humor or mood, and give a narrator or character a recognizable voice. A fresh simile also slows the reader for a moment, which puts weight on whatever is being described. ## Related terms - [Metaphor](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/metaphor): A figure of speech that describes one thing as if it were another, without "like" or "as": "time is a thief." The comparison carries a feeling or an idea the literal words could not, and a reader understands it in an instant. - [Figurative language](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/figurative-language): Words used beyond their literal meaning to create an image, a feeling or an idea: metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, irony and the other figures of speech. "It's raining cats and dogs" is figurative; "it's raining hard" is literal. - [Personification](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/personification): Giving human qualities, actions or feelings to something that is not human: an animal, an object, a place or an idea. "The wind howled" and "the city never sleeps" make the nonhuman feel alive and give it a mood. - [Dialogue](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/dialogue): Spoken lines under a character cue. In Plot, a dialogue pass proposes changes, mostly to the spoken lines, that you accept or reject one at a time. --- Canonical page: