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Sensory simile

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 simile that explicitly engages sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell to create vivid, sensorially grounded comparisons.

Detailed Definition
A sensory simile explicitly compares two things using sensory details—sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell—to evoke vivid, embodied experience; for example, “Her laughter was like cinnamon on hot milk” engages taste and warmth to convey intimacy and comfort through figurative linkage.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” uses sensory simile: “tasting of Flora and the country green”; Percy Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” compares leaves to “pestilence-stricken multitudes”; Emily Dickinson’s “A Bird came down the Walk” uses sensory simile: “He stirred his Velvet Head”; Robert Frost’s “Birches” compares bent trees to “girls on hands and knees that throw their hair.”
Additional Notes
Sensory simile compares using taste, touch, sound, etc.—“tasting of Flora” (Keats); makes abstractions tangible; stronger than visual-only similes; anchor comparisons in bodily experience for immediacy.
Also Known As
Sensory comparison Perceptual simile Tactile metaphor Evocative likeness Concrete comparison tangible comparison
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