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[ adjective ] (used of the meanings of words or text) not literal; using figures of speech
Synonyms Examples "figurative language" Used in print (Bell I. Wiley, "Home Letters of Johnny Reb and Billy...)Yanks were equally adept at figurative expression . (Harold Searles, "Schizophrenic Communication,"...)In my experience , a great many_of the patient 's more puzzling verbal communications are so for the reason that concrete meanings have not become differentiated from figurative meanings in his subjective experience . Or , equally often , a concretistic seeming , particularistic seeming statement may consist , with its mundane exterior , in a form of poetry - may be full of meaning and emotion when interpreted as a figurative expression : a metaphor , a simile , an allegory , or some other symbolic mode of speaking . Related terms literal poetic extended analogical synecdochic tropical metonymic metaphorical rhetorical |
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[ adjective ] consisting of or forming human or animal figures
Synonyms Examples "a figural design" "the figurative art of the humanistic tradition"- Herbert Read Related terms |
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