metaphorical

American  

[met-uh-fawr-i-kuhl, -for-] / ˌmɛt əˈfɔr ɪ kəl, -ˈfɒr- /

Also metaphoric

adjective

1. involving, invoking, or intended to be taken as a metaphor, something used symbolically to represent something else, suggesting a comparison or resemblance.

   Our foreign policy blunder has given the insurgents a metaphorical green light to engage in violent tactics in pursuit of their imperial ambitions.

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Other Word Forms

• hypermetaphoric
  adjective
• hypermetaphorical
  adjective
• metaphorically
  adverb
• metaphoricalness
  noun
• nonmetaphoric
  adjective
• nonmetaphorical
  adjective
• semimetaphoric
  adjective
• semimetaphorical
  adjective
• submetaphoric
  adjective
• submetaphorical
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of metaphorical

First recorded in 1560–70; metaphor ( def. ) + -ical ( def. )

Explanation

Something is metaphorical when you use it to stand for, or symbolize, another thing. For example, a dark sky in a poem might be a metaphorical representation of sadness. You'll find yourself using the adjective metaphorical all the time if you take a poetry class; poems are usually full of metaphors. People use metaphorical language in everyday speech too, like when you say something like, "My brain is foggy today." Metaphorical comes from the Greek word meaning "a transfer," metaphora, which is itself made up of meta, "over," and pherein, "to carry."

Example Sentences

Metaphorical punches were being swung both left and right within PEN, and in the pages of the New York Times and Washington Post.

From BBC • May 8, 2015

Mystics, Abuse of allegory, by, 225; Belief of, 227; Metaphorical style of, 224.

From Essay on the Creative Imagination by Baron, Albert Heyem Nachmen

The Pî are Metaphorical pieces, in which the poet has under his language a different meaning from what it expresses,--a meaning which there should be nothing in that language to indicate.

From The Shih King From the Sacred Books of the East Volume 3 by Legge, James

Metaphorical phrases were common, such as war-adder for arrow, war-shirts for armour, whale’s-path or swan-road for the sea, wave-horse for a ship, tree-wright for carpenter.

From A Brief History of the English Language and Literature, Vol. 2 by Meiklejohn, John Miller Dow

Metaphorical writers are fond of saying that the successful ride to success on the back of the failures.

From Prose Fancies (Second Series) by Le Gallienne, Richard

Related Words

• allegorical
• descriptive
• metaphoric
• symbolic