Simile Finder
Paste a poem, a story or an essay and the finder highlights similes built with like and as … as, rates each as likely or possible, and lists the look-alikes it set aside — “I like tea”, “as soon as”, “as fast as he could” — so you can overrule it. It cannot find metaphors, and the page explains why. Free, no sign-up.
Type or paste some text to look for similes.
How to Use the Simile Finder
- Paste your text. A poem, a paragraph, a chapter. Line breaks are kept.
- Read the highlights. Green marks a likely simile and amber a possible one. Untick the box to see only the likely ones.
- Check each match. The list shows the phrase, the pattern it matched, what it compares to, and the sentence it came from.
- Look at what was set aside. Every phrase the filter rejected is listed with the reason, so a filtering mistake is easy to spot.
What Counts as a Simile Here
A simile compares two unlike things and says so with a marker word. The finder recognises three patterns: like followed by the thing compared (runs like the wind); as … as (as brave as a lion); and an adjective with a single as (lonely as a cloud), for the common adjectives that make such similes. The single-as pattern is limited to a list on purpose: after any other word, as can name a role — worked as a clerk — and a pattern cannot tell the difference.
| Phrase | Why it is not a simile |
|---|---|
| I like tea; they would like to go | Like is a verb |
| It was, like, so cold | Like is filler |
| Do it like this | Like this points at something |
| People like him | Like means such as |
| as soon as, as long as, as well as | Fixed conjunction phrases |
| as fast as he could, as soon as possible | A degree comparison that ends in a clause |
| as if she knew | A clause of manner, not a comparison of two things |
Some matches are marked possible rather than likely. After a verb of perception — it looks like rain, it felt like a dream — like often reports an impression instead of building a figure, and after nothing or something it can mean not similar to or roughly. A bare noun after like or as (cold as ice) is also less certain than one with an article.
A Worked Example
Robert Burns's A Red, Red Rose (1794) opens O my Luve is like a red, red rose / That's newly sprung in June; / O my Luve is like the melodie / That's sweetly play'd in tune. The finder marks two likely similes, like a red, red rose and like the melodie, and keeps the repeated red inside the first. Wordsworth's I wandered lonely as a cloud (1807) gives one, found by the single-as pattern. Tennyson's The Eagle (1851) ends And like a thunderbolt he falls — one likely simile, with he falls correctly left out of the comparison.
The same eagle poem shows the limit. He clasps the crag with crooked hands compares the bird's talons to hands, but there is no like or as to catch, so the finder says nothing about it. That is a metaphor.
Why It Cannot Find Metaphors
A metaphor states the comparison outright: time is a thief, the sea crawls. There is no marker word, and the only way to know that thief is figurative is to know what time is and what a thief is. A rule that flagged every is a or was the would mark ordinary sentences — she is a teacher — by the thousand. Rather than offer a list of false alarms, the tool leaves metaphor to the reader. Likewise it does not look for than comparisons (lighter than air), verbs such as resembles, or as if clauses, which are related but are not similes in the strict sense.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a simile?
- A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things, usually with like or as, as in She runs like the wind or as cold as ice. The comparison is stated, which is what separates a simile from a metaphor.
- What is the difference between a simile and a metaphor?
- A simile uses a marker word to say one thing is like another. A metaphor says one thing is another: time is a thief. Both are comparisons, but only a simile can be found by looking for a marker word.
- Does a simile always use like or as?
- In the usual definition, yes. Some writers also count phrases built on resembles, seems or than, and the finder does not look for these. If your teacher counts them, read the text for them as well.
- Is every as … as a simile?
- No. As tall as his brother is a plain comparison of two people's heights, not a figure of speech. A simile compares things of different kinds. The finder cannot judge that, so it lists every as … as that is not a fixed phrase and leaves the decision to you.
- Why was a phrase I think is a simile set aside?
- The filter works from the words around the marker and has no grammar parser, so it sometimes rejects a real simile. Check the set-aside list, which gives the reason for each rejection.
- Can this tool find metaphors, personification or hyperbole?
- No. These devices have no marker word and depend on meaning, so no pattern can find them reliably.
- Is my text uploaded?
- No. The matching runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.