Question of the week 39: Simile

I hope that you had a nice Halloween and/or Guy Fawkes celebration! Now it’s time for another ‘Question of the Week’. This week, the word Simile is covered in the following question:

What is the purpose of similes?

The term simile is used when making a comparison. The words ‘like’ or ‘as’ need to be used in a sentence in order to create this simile. For instance, the sun is as big as 1,300,000 earths. Fireworks sound like cannon and gunfire. A number of expressions use similes, such as: ‘feels like heaven’, ‘flow like a butterfly; sting like a bee’, ‘as white as snow’.

Since similes are used for comparisons, they can be used in different contexts. One way is to establish a comparison so that it is easier to understand. This can be seen when comparing the imperial measurement system with the metric system. 1 inch is equivalent to, or is like, 2.54 centimeters.

Another One form of simile may involve the senses, such as herbal tea smelling like a flower garden. It would immediately remind you of something that you have smelled in the past. Something that is soft and spongy may have the simile of it feeling like gelatin.

Similes can also be used to express emotion. He was as angry as the Hulk. She was as happy as can be. This is especially used in storytelling where the listener did not see any of the emotions and interactions.

There are also other ways of using similes, such as to compliment a person, to crack a joke, to vent off anger or stress, to rate, etc. One thing that all these contexts have in common however is the fact that there is always a comparison to something that sparks a memory. Thus the purpose of a simile is to make you remember an event in order to make sense of what was being compared.

In short: A simile is a comparison, which utilizes the word ‘like’ or ‘as’ in a sentence. The purpose of a simile is to spark a memory in order to better understand what was being compared.

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