metaphor

noun 1 sense

a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity

Qwen3 8B
DeepSeek V3
Mistral 7B

Panels 3, 4 and 5 are computed per model. Switch to see them disagree.

1 Your word measured
noun 1 sense 0 synonyms

Definitions come from WordNet, a hand-curated dictionary.

2 To an AI, it's pieces measured
DeepSeek V3 metaphor 1 token
Mistral 7B met aphor 2 tokens
Qwen3 8B metaphor 1 token

This is the tokenizer splitting text, not the model understanding it.

3 Synonyms, antonyms, and the AI measured
Qwen3 8B
DeepSeek V3
Mistral 7B

Dictionary synonyms measured

WordNet lists none for this word.

Shade shows how close the model puts each word to metaphor.

Dictionary synonyms measured

WordNet lists none for this word.

Shade shows how close the model puts each word to metaphor.

This model splits metaphor into 2 pieces, so it has no vector of its own here: this is the average of its fragments, and the results below are correspondingly rough.

Dictionary synonyms measured

WordNet lists none for this word.

Shade shows how close the model puts each word to metaphor.

Model neighbours are distributional, not dictionary synonyms. Two words can be close because they appear in similar sentences, which is why an antonym can outscore a synonym here.

4 Its personality measured
Qwen3 8B
DeepSeek V3
Mistral 7B
rare common
concrete abstract
casual formal
everyday technical
negative positive
mild intense
powerless powerful
small big
rare common
concrete abstract
casual formal
everyday technical
negative positive
mild intense
powerless powerful
small big

This model splits metaphor into 2 pieces, so it has no vector of its own here: this is the average of its fragments, and the results below are correspondingly rough.

rare common
concrete abstract
casual formal
everyday technical
negative positive
mild intense
powerless powerful
small big

Scores are projections onto axes we defined from anchor words, not labels the model assigns.

5 Surprising neighbours measured
Qwen3 8B
DeepSeek V3
Mistral 7B

These sit just outside the closest neighbours in panel 3, and no dictionary lists any of them as related to metaphor. That gap is the model’s own learned association.

These sit just outside the closest neighbours in panel 3, and no dictionary lists any of them as related to metaphor. That gap is the model’s own learned association.

This model splits metaphor into 2 pieces, so it has no vector of its own here: this is the average of its fragments, and the results below are correspondingly rough.

These sit just outside the closest neighbours in panel 3, and no dictionary lists any of them as related to metaphor. That gap is the model’s own learned association.

These are statistical associations in the training data, not the model thinking.