Guide to Literary Terms | Analogy

Analogy - the relationship of similarity between two or more entities or a partial similarity on which a comparison is based. An example is the classic analogy between the heart and a pump. In argumentation and persuasion, analogy is often used as a form of reasoning in which one thing is compared to or contrasted with another in certain respects, based on the known similarity or dissimilarity in other respects. Analogy is often used to paint vivid word pictures.

The term comes from the Greek analogia, meaning “proportion.”

In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift describes the societies of the Lilliputians and the Brobdingrags in such a way as to make their characteristics and weaknesses analogous to human society.

see: metaphor, simile