Last Updated：2025/11/22

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(linguistics) A former metaphor which has in effect lost its metaphorical status and become literal. Not to be confused with stale metaphor (a type of cliché), although it often is.

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dead metaphor

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Source Word

dead metaphor

Noun

(linguistics) A former metaphor which has in effect lost its metaphorical status and become literal. Not to be confused with stale metaphor (a type of cliché), although it often is.

Japanese Meaning

（言語学）もともと比喩表現として用いられていたが、比喩的な意味やニュアンスを失い、文字通りの意味で定着した表現。 / 死んだ比喩：初めは比喩として成立していたが、時間の経過とともにその比喩性が薄れ、通常の語として扱われるようになった表現。

What is this buttons?

The linguist explained how the word 'deadline' had become a dead metaphor.

Google Translation / DeepL Translation

その言語学者は「deadline」という語がかつての隠喩で、比喩的な意味を失って文字どおりの表現になってしまったことを説明した。

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Sense（1）

(linguistics) A former metaphor which has in effect lost its metaphorical status and become literal. Not to be confused with stale metaphor (a type of cliché), although it often is.

An objectivist might grant that digest an idea was once a metaphor, but he would claim that it is no longer metaphorical. For him it is a “dead metaphor,” one that has become conventionalized and has its own literal meaning.

Google Translation / DeepL Translation

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dead metaphors

（ plural ）

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dead metaphor

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