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A substance obtained from, and resembling, pectin, and occurring in overripe fruits.

An intermediate product formed in the gastric digestion of albuminous matter.

The transference of the relation between one set of objects to another set for the purpose of brief explanation; a compressed simile; e. g., the ship plows the sea. Abbott & Seeley. "All the world's a stage." Shak.

Of or pertaining to metaphor; comprising a metaphor; not literal; figurative; tropical; as, a metaphorical expression; a metaphorical sense. -- Met`a*phor"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Met`a*phor"ic*al*ness, n.

One who makes metaphors.

A salt of metaphosphoric acid.

Pertaining to, or designating, a monobasic acid, HPO3, analogous to nitric acid, and, by heating phosphoric acid, obtained as a crystalline substance, commonly called glacial phosphoric acid.

A verbal translation; a version or translation from one language into another, word for word; -- opposed to paraphrase. Dryden.

Translated literally.

Metaphrase.

A literal translator.

Close, or literal.

See Metaphysics.

Of or pertaining to metaphysics.

In the manner of metaphysical science, or of a metaphysician. South.

One who is versed in metaphysics.

Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena; mental philosophy; psychology. Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken, is a science or complement of sciences exclusively occupied with mind. Sir W. Hamilton. Whether, after all, A larger metaphysics might not help Our physics. Mrs. Browning.…

Change of form; transformation.

A change in the letters or syllables of a word.

A word having more than one form of the root.