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Concrete metaphor

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A metaphor that draws on tangible, physical imagery to illustrate abstract ideas

Detailed Definition
A Concrete metaphor is a figurative expression that uses tangible, sensory-rich imagery to represent abstract ideas, making the intangible vividly perceptible (e.g., “hope is a feather”); distinct from allegory, concrete metaphors operate at the level of individual images rather than sustained narrative, and are central to Imagist and objectivist poetics, where precision of perception—such as William Carlos Williams’s “red wheelbarrow”—grounds emotional or philosophical insight in physical reality.
Example
Example in poetry:
Concrete metaphor: “Her anger was a red balloon” (visual, tangible); Plath’s “The moon is my mother” (concrete celestial); Original: “Hope is a paper boat in gutter-rain”
Additional Notes
Metaphor using concrete, specific images. Example: "time is a thief." More accessible than abstract metaphor. Related to: vehicle, tenor. Creates immediate understanding.
Also Known As
Physical metaphor tangible comparison material figure embodied metaphor
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