Figurative Language Practice Practice Test

Metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two unlike things without using like or as. It treats one thing as if it were another to highlight a particular quality or idea, such as "Time is a thief," which suggests time steals moments without claiming time literally commits theft. This direct equivalence is what sets a metaphor apart. By contrast, a simile uses like or as (for example, "as brave as a lion"), while personification gives human traits to nonhuman things, and an idiom is a commonly used expression whose meaning isn’t predictable from the individual words. So, the described figure of speech is metaphor.