Simile is a figure of speech of comparison that compares two unlike things and says that one thing is like another thing. You’ll often find a comparison word such as like or as in a simile.
This post contains more than 120 examples of similes in the form of sentences. To get the most of them, notice how unlike the two things being compared are. That’s the crux in writing good similes.
(The unlike thing being compared to, also called vehicle, has been underlined in all the examples for ease of following. Also, my comments that go with examples are in square brackets.)
More resources on simile:
- How to write different types of similes and avoid common mistakes?
- Are you looking at simpler simile examples? Look at simile examples for kids, which have been categorized under levels of increasing difficulty
- Since the three are similar to each other, learn the difference between metaphor, simile, and analogy
- Take exercises to test your understanding of similes
1. Simile examples with ‘like’
1. Unaccustomed to online learning, the first few weeks of online classes during Covid time were like drinking from a fire hose.
2. Covid-19 is like a bullet piercing the body. It might exit your body, but it leaves wounds – sometimes fatal – behind. Source
3. This [Covid] is like influenza [of 1918] moving in very slow motion. Source
4. Curbs on people without jabs is like house arrest. Source
5. Refusing COVID-19 vaccine is like drink-driving. It endangers others. Source
6. In the initial months of Covid-19, we thought it’ll go away in few months, but we were wrong. It has taken roots like the hardiest weed, almost impossible to get rid of.
7. “But having these images is like reading a book instead of just looking at the cover.” Nasa on seeing the river delta in Jezero crater, Mars, through the rover on the ground vs. seeing it from the orbit. Source
8. Michael Phelps diving into a pool was like a pirate, with a map in hand, jumping on a desolate beach to dig out treasure of gold.
9. The vagabond roamed the streets like a tin can swept by wind.
10. The forward, with his sharp turns like an antelope chased by a cheetah, dodged three defenders to fire the goal.
11. Fearing a rise of killer robots is like worrying about overpopulation on Mars. Source
12. Outside [outdoors] is like a medicine. Source
13. Depression is like every vein, artery and cell in your body is filled with dark sadness. Source
14. It [wild skating] really is like flying. Source
15. On Sunday, I switched off from the outside world and lazed like a hippopotamus in a river.
16. People on the boat were packed in like sardines.
17. My son barely speaks in front of strangers, avoiding them like a snail hiding in its shell.
18. I had grand dreams, but, when faced with reality, they went down, much like how Titanic went down after colliding with the iceberg.
19. Trading bitcoin is like trading stamps. Source
20. During every festival season, my mother can be seen running like a headless chicken, trying to juggle multiple things.
21. He is like a grenade with the pin pulled, ready to go off any time.
22. The sentry watched every entrant into the building like a hawk.
23. The economy in the past year has behaved more like a roller coaster than a balloon.
24. Investing in such junk bonds is like carrying water in a sieve.
25. The crowd swayed like poppy in the wind.
26. His typing is noisy like a washing machine rotating at full speed with dozen spoons inside.
27. Some celebrities rise to dizzying heights of fame, influence, and money, but they eventually come down like a ball thrown upwards.
28. I scavenged data for my paper all over the internet like crows scavenge for food.
29. Unconcerned about things to come later in the day, I slept like a log in the afternoon.
30. After getting into crosshairs of police in the drug case, his friends avoid him like plague.
31. The political party dropped its popular leader like a hot potato after serious allegations were levelled against him.
Here are few quotes from writers, public figures, and other popular people in the form of simile with like:
32. Playing polo is like trying to play golf during an earthquake. Sylvester Stallone
33. Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Buddha
34. Justice is like a train that’s nearly always late. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
35. Alimony is like buying oats for a dead horse. Arthur Baer
36. Trying to predict future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window. Peter Drucker
37. That man’s ears make him look like a taxi-cab with both doors open. Howard Hughes on Clark Gable
38. The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds. David Hume
39. Your brain has a battery life and worrying about stuff you can’t control is like live streaming on data. J K Molina
40. Dealing with network executives is like being nibbled to death by ducks. Eric Sevareid
41. Your morals are like roads through Alps. They make these hairpin turns all the time. Erica Jong
42. In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current. Thomas Jefferson
43. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison
44. Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through. Jonathan Swift
45. Within the first few months I discovered that being a president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or be swallowed. Harry S Truman
46. Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house. William Shenstone
47. Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. William Arthur Ward
48. To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting. Edmund Burke
49. A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. James Beard
50. Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it. E.B. White
51. A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction. Leo Tolstoy
52. A muscle is like a car. If you want it to run well early in the morning, you have to warm it up. Florence Griffith-Joyner
53. A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it. Rabindranath Tagore
54. Lives are like rivers; eventually they go where they must, not where we want them to. Richard Russo
55. The art of living is more like that of wrestling than of dancing; the main thing is to stand firm and be ready for an unforeseen attack. Marcus Aurelius
56. To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and keep absolutely sober. Logan Pearsall Smith
57. Reading Aftermath is like having a flashback to the freakish experience of living through your own death. Source
2. Simile examples with ‘as’
58. Although looked risky to my parents, my first mountaineering expedition above 20,000 feet was as safe as ibex climbing near-vertical dam walls.
59. The hackers made off with millions of dollars from the bank, taking advantage of their lax security which was as strong as the one provided by our street dog drunk on a litre of beer.
60. Because of injuries, Roger Federer’s participation in tournaments has been as patchy as grass in a desert.
61. I felt as lonely in the new city as Lystrosaurus felt more than 250 million years ago when almost everything died on the planet.
62. The fun & frolic was as boisterous as the stormy sea.
63. I couldn’t eat because the meal was as cold as an iron rod in freezing winter.
64. Your expressions during the play were as animated as a suit on a hanger.
65. The two-year report card clearly indicates that the politician’s promises were as hollow as a log eaten up by termites.
66. Mental health needs to be taken as seriously as physical health.
67. I was as energetic as a cheerleader at the start of the day, but was as flat as a deflated balloon by evening.
68. The new rule imposed in the college is as outdated as the law that requires government approval for publication of map of the country or its part.
69. I was as desperate to get off the roller coaster as a flopping fish on the line.
70. Our institutions have gone downhill in their oversight on the government of the day, becoming as spineless as a jellyfish.
71. After the change in regime, the diplomatic relations between the two countries have become as frigid as Arctic winter.
72. In the 80s, the ravines, buzzing with dacoits, were as lawless as stormy wind.
73. Of late, our neighbor has been as friendly as a puppy; I’m expecting some request from him shortly.
74. After few pegs, the man was as wobbly as a spinning top nearing its last few rotations.
75. Watching TV without my favorite show is as unexciting as watching paint dry.
76. Public speaking is as easy for me as putting toothpaste back in tube.
77. This time, I’m as sure-footed as a goat in navigating the path to a successful novel.
78. The workers are working as tirelessly as a spider in getting the building ready before the inauguration day.
79. Without a job and direction, he is as aimless as clouds in the sky.
80. Her dress was as colorful and bright as the leaves in fall in the North East.
81. In the first few weeks, I felt as lonely as a scarecrow in the new city.
82. Slippery as an eel, the wanted criminal was finally nabbed by the police after years of effort.
83. I would rather think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to come together and make sense. Harold S. Kushner
84. He looked at me as if I were a side dish he hadn’t ordered. Ring Lardner
85. In my youth I regarded the universe as an open book, printed in the language of equations, whereas now it appears to me as a text written in invisible ink, of which in our rare moments of grace we are able to decipher a small segment. Arthur Koestler
86. A definitive profile of Zuckerberg, described here as sometimes “brusque, flat as a dial tone,” but “self-deprecating,” too. Source
87. The rhetoric was mostly as empty of substance and evasive on details as a Paul Ryan budget. Source
88. The epidemiology of polio is simple to understand – as simple as seeing the inevitability of the major crisis we have before us. Source
3. Simile examples with other comparison words
89. Lionel Messi leaving FC Barcelona can be compared to A-76, world’s largest iceberg at 4,320 square kilometres, breaking off from Antarctica. Both seemed inseparable.
90. His concern for building a career was no more than the concern of well-fed lions for the next meal.
91. When the dish was served, he behaved the way monkeys do.
92. In 80s a clay-court player’s chance of winning Wimbledon title was no more than winning a lottery.
93. Your chance of finishing in dean’s list is less than my dog’s chance of solving this problem in algebra.
94. Organizing a near-safe Olympics amid the pandemic was no less a feat than the records that tumbled in the swimming pool.
95. Convincing him to mend his ways is no different from boiling the ocean.
96. I look forward to vacations many times more than Fridays.
97. Statistics are used by baseball fans in much the same way that a drunk leans against a street lamp; it’s there more for support than enlightenment. Vin Scully
98. A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
99. [Nasty words are a] poison more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth. Shakespeare
100. English humor resembles the Loch Ness monster in that both are famous but there is a strong suspicion that neither exists. George Mikes
101. I’ve been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. Molly Ivins
102. The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing. Jean-Baptiste Colbert
103. The jacket resembled a verdant forest with its beautiful chaos of green feathers. Source
104. Her face is round, and her dimpled smile is accented by two front teeth that resemble Chiclets. Source
Write Sentences Like in Newspapers and Books
Step-by-step process. Little grammar. Real-world examples.
4. Simile examples containing adjectives
105. While proofreading his papers, he focuses with zen-like concentration. [Concentration is like zen monk.]
106. The company offers its services through Swiss-Arm-knife-style product. [Product is like Swiss-army-knife.]
107. The previous developer has created a spaghetti-like mess in this software.
108. The seal couldn’t escape from the shark’s vice-like grip.
109. The product team is working with laser-like focus to launch the new product in two weeks.
110. Intelligence agencies are keeping hawk-like eye on clues for potential violence.
111. He has a pudgy face and a paunch that gives him a teddy-bear-like quality.
112. But the 6-foot-4 actor, now sporting a full Santa-Claus-like beard, was subdued in comparison to his diminutive wife. Source
113. Rife with bright colors, her new pieces forgo her signature polka dots for faces and eyes and are child-like in nature. Source
114. It is doubtful that any Churchill-like figure – were one available – could thrive.
115. The couch is too deep, and he is growing heavier; he will be Buddha-like in girth at some point soon. Source
5. Examples of negative similes
116. Unlike U.S. Football fans who caught a falling cat in the U.S. flag and saved it, no one was there to step up and save the struggling company.
117. The customer service at my new telecom service provider is not at all like the one at my earlier service provider.
118. But unlike an online survey, science is a gradual, painstaking process that generates more questions than answers. Source
119. Unlike technology, there is no leapfrog development in politics. Source
120. Cribs, unlike seatbelts, are built for the purpose of wilful prevention. Source
121. There are some people who leave impressions not so lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water. Kate Chopin
