The vocabulary of ecology is a part of scientific discourse, which implies that it should be objective, concise, and deprived of any stylistic devices peculiar to literary style. Analyzing this particular field, we draw the conclusion that a great number of ecological terms are formed through metaphorical means. If literature makes use of the term metaphor to denote a figure of speech that describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to have similarcharacteristics to that person or object, in terminology we use the term similative metasemy for the same purpose. The aim of the article is to examine and classify these terms according to the criteria existing in both lexicology and stylistics.