A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things using "like" or "as". It differs from a metaphor which directly states one thing is the other. There are three main types of similes: those using "like", those using "as", and those without either word. Similes can be implicit, leaving it to the reader to determine the features being compared, or explicit in specifying the basis of the comparison. They are commonly used in literature and everyday speech to draw comparisons in descriptive and engaging ways.

1. SIMILE

2. Mean:
 A simile is a figure of speech that directly
compares two different things, usually by
employing the words "like" or "as" – also, but
less commonly, "if", or "than". A simile differs
from a metaphor in that the latter compares two
unlike things by saying that the one thing is the
other thing.

3. SIMILE
Types
In Using Using Without
literature 'like' 'as' 'like' or
'as'

4. IN LITERATURE
 "Curley was flopping like a fish on a line."
 "The very mist on the Essex marshes was like a
gauzy and radiant fabric."
 "Why, man, they both bestride the narrow world
like a Colossus."
 "But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the
simile." Charles Dickens, in the opening to A
Christmas Carol.

5. USING “like”
A simile can explicitly provide the basis of a comparison
or leave this basis implicit. In the implicit case the
simile leaves the audience to determine for themselves
which features of the target are being predicated. It
may be a type of sentence that uses 'as' or 'like' to
connect the words being compared.
 She is like a candy so sweet.
 He is like a refiner's fire.
 Her eyes twinkled like stars.
 He fights like a lion.
 He runs like a cheetah.
 She is cute like a rose.

6. USING “as”
 The use of 'as' makes the simile more
explicit.
 She walks as gracefully as a cat.
 He was as hungry as a lion.
 He was as mean as a bull.
 She wasn't as smart as Vanessa.
 That spider was as fat as an elephant.

7. Without 'like' or 'as'
Sometimes similes are submerged, used without using
comparative words ('Like' or 'As').
 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art
more lovely and more temperate:" William
Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
 "I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park!"
Mater, Cars
 "How this Herculean Roman does become / The
carriage of his chafe." William Shakespeare, Antony
and Cleopatra' Act I, sc. 3.