Figurative
Etymology
From Latin figura, "form, shape, figure," from fingere ("to shape, mold, fashion"). A "figure of speech" is a shaping of language away from its literal form, and figurative describes any language that works that way. The same root, in its sense of "molding," also gives us "fiction" — language shaped into something other than the plain fact.
adjective · /FIG-yuh-ruh-tiv/
Using words to mean something other than their plain, literal sense — as in metaphor or figures of speech.
What it names
The signal that a phrase shouldn’t be taken at face value — the difference between actually drowning and being "drowning in emails."
Example
When she said the news "killed" her, she meant it figuratively — she was mortified, not dead.
Related idea
Figurative language means something other than what it literally says; literal language means exactly what the words denote. "The market is on fire" is figurative unless the trading floor is genuinely ablaze.