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Much research in cognitive linguistics suggests that many abstract concepts, such as racism, are understood, at least partly, in embodied metaphorical terms. For example, understanding the conventional phrase," Our relationship is at a crossroad", is partly accomplished through the activation of the conceptual metaphor" Romantic relationship is a journey." It is claimed in this chapter that the recruitment of embodied metaphors in some aspects of verbal metaphor understanding is done imaginatively as people re-create what it must be like to engage in similar actions. The key to this imaginative process is simulation, in this case the mental enactment of the very action referred to in the metaphor. The purpose of this chapter is to make the case for embodied simulation in a theory of metaphor understanding. This is done by describing relevant research from cognitive science on the importance of embodied simulation …