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What Is A Metaphor?

A metaphor is defined as a figure of speech, or something that we use to  replace "normal" words  in order to help others understand or enjoy our message. For example, we use the phrase "a blanket of snow" to describe a snowfall that covers the ground evenly, as if the snow were a fabric. The popular software "Windows" is named for the rectangular units that show information in much the same way as the windows on our houses allow us to look outside in different directions and see different things. When you see a word that substitutes the real word one would use, it's probably a metaphor.

After time, a metaphor gets used so often that it is no longer treated figuratively. When this happens, we call it a "dead metaphor". One can always debate whether a metaphor is "living" or "dead" because there's something very special - very personal about the metaphor. You see, a living metaphor reaches into some other part of our personal understanding in order to work: if we must form a "conceptual bridge" to get the meaning of the metaphor, then it  is still quite alive, if only to ourself. 

When learning English for the first time, a student may have trouble knowing that "blanket" is a dying metaphor for "layer". In North America, we've heard this phrase so often that the phrases "layer of snow" and "blanket of snow" are interchangeable. Meanwhile, in Mexico, where snow may never fall, one might need an explanation of what "snow" is in order to recognize that "blanket" is being used figuratively - a metaphor. Like a blanket of snow, a "coat" of paint is also a layer - and a metaphor - so close in their figurative usage that it comes as no surprise that a real-life blanket can be worn like a coat. One language, dialect, region or jargon may accept a metaphor sooner than another, so that the same metaphor may be living in one place while stone dead in another. Untold thousands of metaphors are quietly synonymous with others in the same or other languages.

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It is the belief of this website and its author that the metaphor not only reveals much about the workings of the mind, but also of the workings of the universe. That we, being creatures of this universe, and bound by its rules (the Unified Theory), not only serve these rules but reflect them in the very way we think. The uncannily universal relationships we draw - the metaphors - revealing one piece of the greater universal truth. This website is of the firm belief that our minds bear the signature of creation.

Metaphor Resources

Metaphor Examples