metaphorical meaning

collocation in English

meaningsofmetaphoricalandmeaning

These words are often used together. Click on the links below to explore the meanings. Or,see other collocations withmeaning.
metaphorical
adjective
uk
/ˌmet.əˈfɒr.ɪ.kəl/us
/ˌmet̬.əˈfɔːr.ɪ.kəl/
Metaphorical language ...
See more atmetaphorical
meaning
noun
uk
/ˈmiː.nɪŋ/us
/ˈmiː.nɪŋ/
The meaning of something is what it expresses ...
See more atmeaning

(Definition ofmetaphoricalandmeaningfrom theCambridge English Dictionary© Cambridge University Press)

Examplesofmetaphorical meaning

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
Of course there is no guarantee that a person would grasp themetaphoricalmeaningof a word by recognizing its literal basis.
From theCambridge English Corpus
Accordingly, he shows how semantic mechanisms previously employed for literal meaning can be extended to account formetaphoricalmeaning.
From theCambridge English Corpus
The story context aided the young child to grasp themetaphoricalmeaning.
From theCambridge English Corpus
The effort to clarify themetaphoricalmeaningof 'lavador' has occupied numerous scholars.
From theCambridge English Corpus
Thus, the familiarity of the source domain and the metaphorical mapping might have also aided children in extracting themetaphoricalmeaning, leading to an earlier onset of metaphor comprehension.
From theCambridge English Corpus
Literal meaning differs frommetaphoricalmeaningonly in recruiting the default thematic dimension associated with a particular word.
From theCambridge English Corpus
Children would either conflate literal andmetaphoricalmeaninginitially, gradually separating the two, or they would focus on the literal meaning initially, gradually integrating the metaphorical.
From theCambridge English Corpus
The b-sentences are possible only given an unusual context that establishes appropriatemetaphoricalmeaning.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
The two were literal synonyms for the sower, but theirmetaphoricalmeaningwas more complex.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
The phrase has also taken on themetaphoricalmeaningof the barrier which the relatively limited armed forces of a country present to potential attackers.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
One problem is that pragmatic accounts assume that it is possible to adjudicate between literal and metaphorical meanings.
From theCambridge English Corpus
How should different connotations of the same word or metaphorical meanings be assessed?
From theCambridge English Corpus
Strohm advised, however, that caution is necessary when attaching metaphorical meanings to works: doing so means having to account for a metaphor's relationship to the whole of a composition.
From theCambridge English Corpus
If metaphorical meanings were ignored then people should reject them at the same speed they do for the scrambled metaphors.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
Her songs are generally not complicated yet full of metaphorical meanings, with lots of the seventh and diminished chords.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
More importance is attached to the ethics and metaphorical meanings derived from them.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
Note that this method does not deal with an author's possible intention to express metaphorical meanings, and does not identify metaphorical utterances and conventional linguistic metaphors.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
The main topic discussed was the fact that there can be different metaphorical meanings of the song, as the word like can be taken in separate contexts.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
Gibbs found that in general, people understand not only the metaphorical meanings of the statements, but that they also can have different pragmatic implications for different contexts.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
Want to learn more?
Go to the definition ofmetaphorical
Go to the definition ofmeaning
See other collocations withmeaning