Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.
- n. A story, picture, or play employing such representation. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Herman Melville's Moby Dick are allegories.
- n. A symbolic representation: The blindfolded figure with scales is an allegory of justice.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A figurative treatment of a subject not expressly mentioned, under the guise of another having analogous properties or circumstances; usually, a sentence, discourse, or narrative ostensibly relating to material things or circumstances, but intended as an exposition of others of a more spiritual or recondite nature having some perceptible analogy or figurative resemblance to the former.
- n. A method of speaking or writing characterized by this kind of figurative treatment.
- n. In painting and sculpture, a figurative representation in which the meaning is conveyed symbolically. Synonyms Simile, Metaphor, Comparison, etc. See simile.
- To employ allegory; allegorize.
Wiktionary
- n. The representation of abstract principles by characters or figures.
- n. A picture, book, or other form of communication using such representation.
- n. A symbolic representation.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A figurative sentence or discourse, in which the principal subject is described by another subject resembling it in its properties and circumstances. The real subject is thus kept out of view, and we are left to collect the intentions of the writer or speaker by the resemblance of the secondary to the primary subject.
- n. Anything which represents by suggestive resemblance; an emblem.
- n. (Paint. & Sculpt.) A figure representation which has a meaning beyond notion directly conveyed by the object painted or sculptured.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an expressive style that uses fictional characters and events to describe some subject by suggestive resemblances; an extended metaphor
- n. a visible symbol representing an abstract idea
- n. a short moral story (often with animal characters)
Etymologies
- From Middle English allegorie, from Old French allegorie, from Latin allegoria, from Ancient Greek ἀλληγορία (allēgoria), from ἄλλος (allos, "other") + ἀγορεύω (agoreuō, "I speak") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English allegorie, from Latin allēgoria, from Greek, from allēgorein, to interpret allegorically : allos, other; see al-1 in Indo-European roots + agoreuein, to speak publicly (from agora, marketplace; see ger- in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I use the term allegory reluctantly because allegorical figures, like those found in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress or Spenser's Faerie Queene tend to be one-dimensional, lacking interiority and nuance.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Gilmour: Anne Bronte's Religious Imagination
“To become figurable-that is to say, visible in the first place, accessible to our imaginations - the classes have to be able to become in some sense characters in their own right: this is the sense in which the term allegory in our title is to be taken as a working hypothesis.”
“But the allegory is a continued metaphor, in which the circumstances are palpably often purely imagery, while the thing signified is altogether real.”
“But to tie the book down to this allegory is to do it a reductive injustice.”
“Most of all, the show's universe was flimsy and under-developed, the result of too much attention paid to thin allegory and facile real-world parallels, and not enough energy diverted to making Galactica's universe its own living creation.”
“It sounds like it is rich in allegory, which should be part of a balanced diet.”
“The ketchup allegory is brilliant, but I wish Summers knew how to use “comprise.””
“The allegory is so interchangeable over the decades and speaks to that inner paranoia of whatever society is watching it.”
“The second allegory is the religious one, and it is more complex.”
Book Review: The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie
“Because the Maccabean allegory is so concerned with establishing the threat posed by an alliance between an internal other and a larger external force, the entire event is traversed by fantasies of persecution and vulnerability.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘allegory’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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PHIL - vocabulary of thinking
philosophy, Socratic, dialogue, philosopher, Athenian, philosophical, politic, Greek, method, death, ancient, believe and 243 more...
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Rhetorical Devices
trope, wellerism, antimetabole, syncope, open-list, accismus, abating, abbaser, abecedarian, abcisio, ablatio, abominatio and 425 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Y
What a -Y does to an otherwise common, dull word
zany, waxy, wavy, arty, chewy, bony, boxy, cozy, nosy, foxy, wiry, junky and 321 more...
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Words to live by
adage, maxim, proverb, truism, saw, saying, aphorism, axiom, platitude, dogma, oracle, old wives' tale and 11 more...
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general search words
words when I found them in the articles
benign, pantomime, deregulation, regressive, morose, staid, mercurial, temperament, ludicrous, fallacy, discord, afloat and 17 more...
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very good words must use in writing
ambivalent, allegory, spartan, callousness, clandestine, voluptuous, monologue, furtive, repudiate, fanatic, anodyne, reconnoitering and 4 more...
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5000 FREE SAT Words
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 229 more...
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Masonry
Due to my absolute ignorance of masonry and masonic terms, this list is shamelessly copied from this masonic dictionary.
Feel free to add words (as soon as I complete my transcription).abif, accepted, accord, active member, adjournment, admonish, adoration, adversity, affiliate, affirmation, lawful age, aid of deity and 143 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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most used
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The New Yorker
prejudice, ignominious, quintessence, disparity, vanguard, repudiated, eclectic, dredge, taxonomy, pugnacious, surreptitiously, pudgy and 113 more...
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vocabulary
verisimilitude, pendulate, moxie, whimper, nary, stevedore, hubris, prodigious, super-injunction, injunction, lashings, fennel and 202 more...
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My Revised GRE Preparation List
Words from the new GRE : This list consists mostly of words from the book Magoosh-GRE-vocab-ebook, which is one of the best vocab materials available, especially if you have started preparing one ...
alacrity, prosaic, veracity, paucity, contrite, trite, maintain, laconic, pugnacious, disparate, egregious, innocuous and 533 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for allegory.
tankexmortis A tool for those with little imagination. Dec 4, 2006