Figurative Language and Literary Devices
Determine the meaning of figurative and connotative language in context, analyse the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, and identify literary devices such as metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, and irony
What a learner can do afterwards
- Identify a metaphor or simile in a passage and explain its effect on the reader
- Explain how an author's word choice creates a particular tone (e.g., menacing, humorous, melancholic)
- Recognise an allusion to a myth, the Bible, or another text and explain what it adds to the meaning
1 · Read
Writers often mean more than the literal words on the page. Figurative language uses words in a way that is not meant word-for-word, to make you picture something or feel a certain way.
A simile compares two things using 'like' or 'as': 'Her voice was as sharp as a knife.' A metaphor skips those words and says one thing IS another: 'Her voice was a knife.' Both make you picture something cutting and harsh, even though no real knife is there.
Word choice sets the mood. Words with almost the same meaning can feel very different: 'The dog crept toward me' feels tense, but 'The dog trotted toward me' feels playful. Writers pick words on purpose.
An allusion is a short reference to a well-known story, person, or text. 'The patience of Job' points to a Bible story about a man who suffered for years without complaining, so it means extremely patient. An allusion works when you know its source. If a name is new, use the nearby words as clues, then look it up.
Personification gives human actions or feelings to something not human: "The wind screamed through the trees." Hyperbole is exaggeration on purpose, like "I have told you a million times." Situational irony happens when what occurs clashes with a clear expectation, such as a fire station, built to fight fires, burning down.
Figurative language and word choice work together to create a feeling, so look past the literal words to find what the author really means.
Readings adapted from Khan Academy articles on figurative language, word choice and figures of speech, and a summary written around an OER Commons poetry unit listing, and one reading written for this dataset. Publisher license terms are not verified.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.