Fiducia TogetherSimile
A comparison using "like" or "as". The gentler cousin of the metaphor, and often the more precise one.
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.
What it is
A simile compares two things explicitly, using "like" or "as": "as cold as the grave", "she moved like water".
Because it announces itself as a comparison, it keeps the two things separate — which is sometimes exactly what a writer wants.
Where it applies
English Language and Literature, and it comes up in unseen poetry more than almost anything else.
How it works
The reader holds both images at once and measures one against the other. That distance is the difference from a metaphor: "he was a wall" merges the two; "he was like a wall" keeps him a man who is being compared to one.
Similes can be built into something bigger — an epic simile runs for several lines and becomes a small picture of its own.
How to use it in your work
The useful move is almost always to ask why a simile rather than a metaphor. If a writer keeps the distance, what does the distance do? Often it makes the description feel observed rather than felt — a narrator watching, not merging.
Comment on the SPECIFIC comparison, not the technique. "Like water" and "like a river in flood" are both similes and mean opposite things.
Where to get help
Your teacher and your board's specification. Bitesize has practice on unseen texts.
Revise this with a song
These are ours. We write revision songs because a lot of people remember a tune when they cannot remember a page, and because revising out loud in the kitchen beats staring at a highlighter.
- The English Exam Survival Song How to approach the English papers under time pressure.
Where to read more
Last reviewed 2026-08-28 by Fiducia Together · Next review due 2027-08-28
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.