The Latin term simile designates one of the argumentative probations or rhetorical tests that are used to base the thesis on an argument. Within them, the simile belongs to the so-called "intra-technical tests", that is, to the "extratechniques", to those depending on the rhetorical ability of the speaker. To the same group belong the argumentum and the sententia.
In the domain of the simile belong the reasonings that are based on the analogy or similarity relation between the treated subjects.
There are four techniques within simile: two of them, the exemplum and the similitudo, have a clear probative value within the reasoning; the other two, simile and comparison, on the other hand, have a purely rhetorical value, in the sense of "ornamental". In this sense, the analogies that appear in these last two techniques tend to be shorter than those that appear in the first two. Specifically:
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