Simile

Read the following two sentences.

Although Jee has a quick temper, he is really harmless as a dove.
Raul, who runs like the wind, is sure to be an Olympic champion.

A simile is an indirect comparison between two ideas that uses like, as, as if, or as though. The phrases “harmless as a dove” and “runs like the wind” are similes. They use the words as and like, which are words of indirect comparison. Jee is not a dove, and Raul is not the wind; instead, they are discussed in similes as having traits similar to these things. Because a simile is a figure of speech that cannot be taken literally, the effective reader must interpret the author’s meaning.