in rhetoric, "comparison, metaphor," according to Century Dictionary, "especially a formal simile, as in poetry or poetic prose, taken from a present or imagined object or event: distinguished from a paradigm, or comparison with a real past event," 1580s, from Greek parabolē "comparison" (see parable).
par excellence
para-
Parabellum
parable
parabola
parabole
parabolic
paracentesis
parachronism
parachute
paraclete