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Once again, let’s start with a quiz. Of the following three sentences, one is a metaphor, one is a simile and one is an analogy. Decide which is which and don’t look at the answers until you’ve given it your best shot.

1. Her eyes sparkle like diamonds when they catch the sunlight just right. But in the dark of the night they are just as hard and cutting.
2. Her eyes are like diamonds.
3. Her eyes are diamonds.

Here are the answers:

1. Analogy
2. Simile
3. Metaphor

All three of these writing tools – metaphors, similes and analogies – are alike in that they draw similarities between different things. But they go about it in slightly different ways:

Metaphor

A metaphor (“Her eyes are diamonds”) is a figure of speech that uses one thing to mean another and draws a comparison between those things. A metaphor says, “A is B.” Here are a few other examples of metaphors:

• All the world’s a stage. (Thanks, Shakespeare.)
• In business, our founder was a mad dog.
• If I have a drink now, my head will be a fuzz ball for the meeting.

The world is not literally a stage. But it’s similar to a stage in that people make their entrances and exits in it. Our founder was not actually a mad dog. He was a human being, of course. But he was vicious in business. A drink will not physically change my head into a ball of fuzz, but it will impair the clarity of my brain for the meeting.

Simile

A simile (“Her eyes are like diamonds”) is a type of metaphor with a twist: the comparison between the different entities is typically made with the words “like” or “as.” Whereas a metaphor says, “A is B,” a simile says, “A is like B.” A few other examples are …

• The world is like a stage.
• In business, our founder was like a mad dog.
• If I have a drink now, my head will be as unclear as a fuzz ball for the meeting.

Analogy

An analogy is …

Wait, before we tackle this, you might want to take some aspirin. It gets rough. How rough? Here’s one of the more simple definitions of the word:

“Analogy” is both the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. In a narrower sense, analogy is an inference or an argument from a particular to another particular, as opposed to deduction, induction, and abduction, where at least one of the premises or the conclusion is general. The word “analogy” can also refer to the relation between the source and the target themselves, which is often, though not necessarily, a similarity, as in the biological notion of analogy.

Right! Don’t tell me you understood that. Einstein wouldn’t have understood that. So let’s take a different approach. Let’s read an analogy and then discuss it….

• Politicians are like diapers: You should change them frequently and for the same reason.

Analogies often contain similes (as this does) or metaphors, or both, but they extend them. They are not mere figures of speech. They are more like arguments or explanations. Like metaphors and similes, they draw similarities between different things – in this case, politicians and diapers – but they take it further. They imply that because the two things are alike in one way, they are alike in other ways. Here’s one last example of an analogy:

• She was the sun, brightening everyone’s existence and dazzling them with her radiance. But she’d burn anyone who came too close.

How would you turn the preceding analogy into a metaphor and a simile?

• Metaphor: She was the sun.
• Simile: She was like the sun.

Starting to make sense?

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