Writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally

* EX. It’s raining cats and dogs. * You are driving me up a wall. An exaggeration that, taken literally, means something other than it does figuratively.

* EX. The sparkling snowflakes floated silently down from the heavens to rest on everything creating a crisp blanket of glistening white. Descriptive language used to appeal to the five senses and to create vivid mental pictures.

* EX. She was a lioness protecting her children when the stranger approached their yard. *. A comparison between two unlike things in which one thing becomes another.

* EX. Her eyes twinkle like the stars in the heavens. A comparison between two things using the words “like” or “as”.

* EX. Buzz * Ex. Whoosh * Ex. Splash The use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning.

* EX. The wind whistled through the dancing trees. A special kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman thing or quality is talked about as if it were human.

* EX. It’s taking forever! An exaggerated or understatement used for effect.

* EX. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Repeated consonant or vowel sounds at the beginning of words.