Metaphors We Live By is a book by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson published in 1980.

[1][2] The book suggests metaphor is a tool that enables people to use what they know about their direct physical and social experiences to understand more abstract things like work, time, mental activity and feelings.

Conceptual metaphor, and a detailed examination of the underlying processes, was first extensively explored in this book.

Since then, the field of metaphor studies within the larger discipline of cognitive linguistics has increasingly developed, with several annual academic conferences, scholarly societies, and research labs contributing to the subject area.

[4] Since its publication, people have used the ideas Lakoff and Johnson proposed to comment on a wide range of topics, from the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States[5] to conspiracy theories.