TROPE

In linguistics, trope is a rhetorical figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i.e., using a word in a way other than what is considered its literal or normal form.

Metaphor and simile are two of the best known trope and are often mentioned together as examples of rhetorical figures. Metaphor and simile are both terms that describe a comparison: the only difference between a metaphor and a simile is that a simile makes the comparison explicit by using "like", "as", or "than."

• Simile a directly stated comparison between two essentially dissimilar things using "like" "as" or "than."

• Metaphor - A comparison between two things which are essentially dissimilar. The comparison is implied rather than directly stated.  

• The Extended Metaphor: An extended metaphor, also called a conceit, is a metaphor that continues into the sentences that follow. An extended metaphor is also a metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work. Extended metaphors are especially effective in poems and fiction.
  
  
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Student Examples of Extended Metaphors

• Personification is a figure of speech in which inanimate or abstract objects are given human traits or qualities, such as emotions, movements and speech.

• Metonymy may be instructively contrasted with metaphor. Both figures involve the substitution of one term for another. In metaphor, this substitution is based on similarity, while in metonymy, the substitution is based on contiguity.

                    Metonymy example: The White House phoned (using White House instead of President).

• Synedoche, related to metonymy and metaphor, creates a play on words by referring to something with a related concept: for example, referring to the whole with the name of a part, such as "hired hands" for workers; a part with the name of the whole, such as "the law" for police officers; the general with the specific, such as "bread" for food; the specific with the general, such as "cat" for a lion; or an object with the material it is made from, such as "bricks and mortar" for a building.