🇵🇹Portuguese Source WordCode: PT

metáfora

Pronunciation / Transliteration: me-ta-fo-ra

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Metaphor/ˈmɛt.ə.fɔːr/
nounCEFR B2 (Upper)Top #2500 frequency
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🇵🇹 Example Sentence in Portuguese:

"A metáfora é um recurso essencial na poesia lírica."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.

    "Her solemn poetry often employs the ocean as a rich metaphor for human grief."
  2. 2

    A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract.

    "The ruined castle stood as a dark metaphor for the collapse of the ancient empire."

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Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the ancient Greek metaphora meaning 'transfer', composed of meta- ('over, across') and pherein ('to bear, carry'). Entering Middle English via Old French and Latin, the term historically evolved from a rhetorical device of transferring meaning to a fundamental cognitive mechanism of human thought.

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