SIMILE = a figure of speech by which one thing, action, or relation is likened or explicitly compared, often with "as" or "like" to something of different kind or quality. An imaginative comparison between objects essentially unlike. Example: A is like B.
METAPHOR = use of a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea in place of another by way of suggesting a likeness or analogy between them. It imaginatively identifies one object with another, as ascribes to one quality of the other. Example: Assumes A is B. The ship plows the sea. A volley of oaths.
Note: a metaphor may be usually expanded into a simile, and a simile may be condensed into a metaphor.
ALLEGORY = Gr. allegoria, description of one thing under the image of another. The veiled presentation, in a figurative story, of a meaning metaphorically implied but not expressly stated. Allegory is a prolonged metaphor, in which typically a series of actions are symbolic of other actions. Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Journey" is an example of allegory.
Examples:
- metaphor Hebrews 12:29
- simile Exodus 24:17
- hyperbole Judges 7:12
- personification Proverbs 1:20-33
- metonymy Psalm 51:18
- synecdoche Mark 1:5
- irony I Kings 18:27; 22:15