figurative

In a sentence

Six example sentences with figurative, each labelled with its topic.

• The poet's mountains are figurative, standing for the obstacles of a long marriage rather than any range she climbed.

  Literature

• When Plato calls the state a ship, the claim is figurative, and pressing it too far produces nonsense about rudders.

  Philosophy

• The memo said the team should attack the quarter, a figurative instruction that two new hires took uncomfortably seriously.

  Business

• Children usually grasp figurative language around age eight, before which a kicked bucket is simply a bucket someone kicked.

  Psychology

• The judge ruled that the slogan was figurative puffery, since no reasonable buyer expected the drink to give them wings.

  Law

• The senator's remark about draining the swamp was figurative, but a wetlands group still issued a press release.

  Politics

Found in these word lists

Each source is a published word list that contains figurative. No exam board publishes an official GRE, GMAT or SAT list; GMAT words come from GRE lists and the Academic Word List.

More GMAT words

• awe
• intimate
• collusion
• dismiss
• procurement
• heed
• bureaucracy
• discredit
• bleak
• endorse
• exemplary
• absurd