The term “simile” in literature has been used with remarkable versatility, serving both as a rhetorical device and a marker of exact reproduction. In many works, authors adopt the simile to draw vivid comparisons—for instance, Dante employs it to illuminate the eerie contrasts of his Inferno ([1], [2], [3]), while Pope and Dickens use similes to encapsulate sweeping ideas and human characteristics ([4], [5], [6]). At the same time, “fac-simile” emerges in historical and scholarly texts as a term denoting an exact copy of an original document or drawing, as seen in examples from Poe and Whitman ([7], [8], [9], [10]). Even in more playful or dismissive contexts, the simile is critiqued for being trite or unsuitable ([11], [12]). Across genres and eras—from classical epics and philosophical treatises to Gothic novels and modern essays—the word “simile” is a chameleon, adapting its role to illustrate, compare, and even question the very nature of authenticity in literature.