Physical metaphors

Techniques > Use of language > Metaphor > Physical metaphors

The world and the universe, according to a physicist, contains only four things: space, time, energy and matter. These are at the root of all our experience and hence provide a rich seam from which metaphors can be hewn.

• Metaphors and things: Making concepts concrete.
• Metaphors and space: The power of three dimensions.
• Metaphors and time: Casting time into space.
• Metaphors and energy: Different forms of energy, different metaphors.

Physical metaphors are the counterpoint of sensory metaphors, as what we create in the physical world is detected and thence interpreted only through the five senses.

See also

Sensory metaphors