Firstly, a Figure of Speech is a figurative language in the form of a single word or phrase. It can be a special repetition, arrangement or omission of words with literal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words e.g Simile, Oxymoron, Metonymy e.t.c.
Simile
A Simile is a figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or as.
Examples
The bride’s dress is as white as snow.
When Paul finished the apple he smacked his lips together like a pair of cymbals.
You know life, life is rather like opening a tin of sardines.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a direct comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common. A metaphor expresses the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar, like a brave person and a lion.
Examples
The streets were a furnace, the sun an executioner. In this sentence, the street is called a furnace because of the heat and the sun is called an executioner because of it’s extreme hotness.
Men’s words are bullets, that their enemies take up and make use of against them. What a man says can be used against him in future just as a bullet can be used to kill.
Shola is a pig. Although Shola is a human being and a pig is an animal, this sentence describes shola as dirty.
Difference between Metaphor and Simile
Writers sometimes use similes and metaphors to help create a vivid image in the reader’s mind. A simile compares two things using the word like or as.
Simile: His father grumbles like a bear in the mornings.
A metaphor also compares two things, but it does not use the word like or as.
Metaphor: His father is a bear in the mornings.
A good book is like a good meal. A simile suggesting that a book may be as (mentally) nourishing and satisfying as a meal
A wire is a road for electrons. A metaphor suggesting that electrons actually do use a wire as a road to travel on.
