The word simile is linked to that similar for which it is used to establish a comparison between two elements. Your hairstyle is similar to the afro look that was used in the seventies of the last century.
And on the other hand, simile is the name given to a popular rhetorical figure employed at the request of the Literature, more precisely in the classic poetry or epics and that consists of the express comparison between one thing and another with the mission of thus giving a concrete idea regarding one of them. The attribution of comparison by similarity what it will do is transfer the symbolic or physical characteristics from one to another.
It should be noted that the simile differs from the metaphor because it appeals to relationship elements such as: what, how, which.
His blue eyes are like the sky on a clear day. This phrase is clearly establishing a simile between the blue eyes of an individual with the blue color of the sky those days in which no cloud intervenes in that color.
Meanwhile, similes can be reversible (the two terms are arranged successively in different order), graduates (inferiority, equality or superiority) or failing that, appear associated with other figures (allegory, antonomasia)
The presence of similes in literature is quite frequent since through this figure the authors can transmit a message that also gives their text an aesthetic feature that will undoubtedly make it unique compared to the rest.
In any case, similes do not turn out to be the exclusive heritage of formal writers, but quite the opposite, since this figure is quite frequent in our daily conversations every time we want to make a comparison between two questions, elements, among other.