figurative

/ˈfɪgərədɪv/

/ˈfɪgjurətɪv/

When speech or writing is not literal, it is figurative, like when you say you have a ton of homework. You don't really have 2000 pounds of homework, do you? Also, when art depicts a figure from life it is figurative, like a figurative drawing of a dancer.

The adjective figurative comes from the Old French word figuratif, which means “metaphorical.” Any figure of speech — a statement or phrase not intended to be understood literally — is figurative. You say your hands are frozen, or you are so hungry you could eat a horse. That's being figurative. In art, figure means "human or animal form," so a figurative drawing might show horses running across a field.

Definitions of figurative

1. adjective

   (used of the meanings of words or text) not literal; using figures of speech
   “figurative language”

   synonyms: nonliteral

   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

   rhetorical

   given to rhetoric, emphasizing style at the expense of thought

   antonyms:

   literal

   limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text

   exact

   marked by strict and particular and complete accordance with fact

   denotative, explicit

   in accordance with fact or the primary meaning of a term

   unrhetorical

   not rhetorical
2. adjective

   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