This philosophical account of metaphor -with predication and the move from language to objects as central elements- radically diverges from other current accounts. The book first provides a lucid classification of account types, and provides detailed discussions of three significant recent studies on the subject. The new conceptions it offers concern the connection between simile and metaphor and the dead metaphor notion. It also illuminates why metaphor is a robust theoretic specimen, connected with some tropes, yet not to be confused with them generally, or with the figurative and the non-literal.