Defined
Whenever you describe something by comparing it to something else, you are using figurative language. This is language writers use to produce images in readers’ minds and to express ideas in fresh, vivid, imaginative ways. To create figurative language writers use figures of speech. These are words and phrases whose connotations go beyond their literal meanings.
When writers use literal language, they are stating facts as they are. Figurative language, by contrast, often uses comparison or exaggeration to make a point, and to help readers imagine something in an unexpected way. For example, in the sentence, The dancer glided like a swan, the writer uses a figure of speech (“glided like a swan”) to produce an image that tells more about the dancer’s movement than the literal sentence, The dancer danced. Figurative language is very common in poetry, though it is also used in prose (both fiction and nonfiction). It can help you understand or imagine something in a way you would not otherwise.
Identification and Application: