Skip to main content
Common Core ELA5th GradeLanguage

L.5.5: Figurative Language and Word Relationships

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.5.5 · Cluster: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use.

Get the Word MapAll 43 5th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 5, Language · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What L.5.5 Means in Plain English

Fifth graders explain what a simile or metaphor means where it sits in a passage, what a saying like “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” really warns, and how synonyms, antonyms and homographs like wind (a breeze) and wind (to turn) sharpen each word’s meaning.

Fourth graders (L.4.5) explained simple similes and metaphors and related words to their opposites and near-synonyms. Fifth grade reads figures of speech in context and adds homographs. Sixth grade (L.6.5) adds personification, part-whole and cause-effect word pairs, and the connotations of similar words.

L.5.5 I Can Statements

  • I can explain what a simile or metaphor means in a passage.
  • I can explain common idioms, adages and proverbs.
  • I can use synonyms, antonyms and homographs to understand words.

L.5.5 Worked Example

One metaphor from a story, two readings of it. The weak one takes the picture as fact.

Prompt

What does the metaphor mean in this sentence? “When the bell rang, the hallway was a river, and Jaden was a twig in the current.”

Not YetThe hallway was flooded with water, and Jaden fell in.A literal reading: the student takes the picture as fact. In a school hallway after the bell, nothing is wet.
Meets the StandardThe hallway was packed with kids all moving the same way, fast, like water in a river. Jaden is the twig, so he’s small and can’t go his own way. He just gets carried along with the crowd.It names both comparisons (the crowd to a river, Jaden to a twig) and says what they show in this moment: Jaden has no control over where he goes.
Moves to Use
Find the two things being compared: the hallway and a river.List what the second thing is like: a river moves fast, all one way.Carry those traits back to the first thing, in this scene.Say what the writer wants you to picture or feel.

Common Mistakes with L.5.5

Reading figures of speech literally

“The hallway was flooded.”

Try this: Ask “Could this really happen here?” and, if not, have students name the two things compared and one trait they share.

Explaining a proverb word by word

“Don’t count your chickens means don’t do math with chickens.”

Try this: Have students describe a real situation where the saying fits, like spending birthday money before it arrives, then state the lesson.

Missing the homograph

Reading “wind the kite string” as if it were about moving air

Try this: Have students say both pronunciations aloud and choose the one whose meaning fits the sentence, then confirm it in a dictionary.

Where L.5.5 Fits

Comes BeforeL.4.5Explain simple similes and metaphors, idioms and proverbs, and relate words to antonyms and synonyms.
AlongsideRL.5.4Work out words and phrases in a story, including similes and metaphors.
Comes NextL.6.5Interpret personification, use part-whole and cause-effect word pairs, and tell connotations apart.

Practice L.5.5

Vocabulary Quiz GeneratorFree ToolA matching quiz from your own list, such as idioms and proverbs paired with what they really mean.IdiomsProverbsMatching
Make a Quiz

Quick Check

  1. What two comparisons does the metaphor make, and what do they show about Jaden?
  2. What does the proverb “The early bird catches the worm” mean?
  3. Bow is a homograph. Give two meanings and how each is said.

L.5.5: Other Names

L.5.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.5.5

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.