simile(n = noun.communication) - a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with `like' or `as');
is a kind of figure, figure of speech, image, trope

   A word or phrase by which anything is likened, in one or more of its aspects, to something else; a similitude; a poetical or imaginative comparison. [1913 Webster]
"A good swift simile, but something currish." [1913 Webster]

simile, n.
1 a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another of a different kind, as an illustration or ornament (e.g. as brave as a lion).
2 the use of such comparison.

Etymology:
ME f. L, neut. of similis like

N  similarity, resemblance, likeness, similitude, semblance, affinity, approximation, parallelism, agreement, analogy, analogicalness, correspondence, homoiousia, parity, connaturalness, connaturality, brotherhood, family likeness, alliteration, rhyme, pun, repetition, sameness, uniformity, isogamy, analogue, the like, match, pendant, fellow companion, pair, mate, twin, double, counterpart, brother, sister, one's second self, alter ego, chip of the old block, par nobile fratrum, Arcades ambo, birds of a feather, et hoc genus omne, gens de meme famille, parallel, simile, type, image, photograph, close resemblance, striking resemblance, speaking resemblance, faithful likeness, faithful resemblance, similar, resembling, like, alike, twin, analogous, analogical, parallel, of a piece, such as, so, homoiousian, connatural, congener, allied to, akin to, approximate, much the same, near, close, something like, sort of, in the ballpark, such like, a show of, mock, pseudo, simulating, representing, exact, lifelike, faithful, true to nature, true to life, the very image, the very picture of, for all the world like, comme deux gouttes d'eau, as like as two peas in a pod, as like as it can stare, instar omnium, cast in the same mold, ridiculously like, as if, so to speak, as it were, as if it were, quasi, just as, veluti in speculum, et sic de similibus, tel maitre tel valet, tel pere tel fils, like master, like servant, like father, like son, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, a chip off the old block.

N  comparison, collation, contrast, identification, comparative estimate, relative estimate, relativity, simile, similitude, analogy (similarity), allegory, matching, pattern-matching, ratio, proportion (number), discrimination, indiscrimination, identification, comparative, metaphorical, compared with, comparable, judged by comparison, relatively, as compared with, comparisons are odious, comparisons are odorous.

N  metaphor, figure of speech, facon de parler, way of speaking, colloquialism, phrase, figure, trope, metaphor, enallage, catachresis, metonymy, synecdoche, autonomasia, irony, figurativeness, image, imagery, metalepsis, type, anagoge, simile, personification, prosopopoeia, allegory, apologue, parable, fable, allusion, adumbration, application, exaggeration, hyperbole, association, association of ideas (analogy), metaphorical, figurative, catachrestical, typical, tralatitious, parabolic, allegorical, allusive, anagogical, ironical, colloquial, tropical, so to speak, so to say, so to express oneself, as it were, mutato nomine de te fabula narratur.