Words are an author's most valuable currency, traded for passion, enthusiasm, love, money, and fame. Alas, I usually eat words for breakfast only to choke on them at dinner.

Certain words have ways of humbling us, especially those whose first language is not English.

Idiom

Allegory

Metaphor

Simile

Analogy

Figurative

Literal

Blah blah blah

What's challenging is not their meaning but their appropriate application in storytelling.

I don't intend to explain these words, but to encourage your curiosity. The word allegory, for instance, almost intuitively seeps its meaning into your mind.

So, for you 2nd-language English writers, it's just a matter of time before words like this don't faze you.