figurative - Definition | Dictionary definition of figurative

Definition of figurative

(used of the meanings of words or text) not literal; using figures of speech

"figurative language"

Synonyms:: nonliteral; rhetorical
given to rhetoric, emphasizing style at the expense of thought; analogical
expressing, composed of, or based on an analogy; extended
beyond the literal or primary sense; metaphoric, metaphorical
expressing one thing in terms normally denoting another; metonymic, metonymical
using the name of one thing for that of another with which it is closely associated; poetic
characterized by romantic imagery; synecdochic, synecdochical
using the name of a part for that of the whole or the whole for the part; or the special for the general or the general for the special; or the material for the thing made of it; tropical
characterized by or of the nature of a trope or tropes; changed from its literal sense

Antonyms:: literal
limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text; exact
marked by strict and particular and complete accordance with fact; unrhetorical
not rhetorical; denotative, explicit
in accordance with fact or the primary meaning of a term; show more antonyms...

consisting of or forming human or animal figures

"the figurative art of the humanistic tradition"- Herbert Read

Synonyms:: figural; representational
(used especially of art) depicting objects, figures,or scenes as seen