ALLEGORY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does allegory mean? 

• ALLEGORY (noun)
  The noun ALLEGORY has 3 senses:

1. a short moral story (often with animal characters)

2. a visible symbol representing an abstract idea

3. an expressive style that uses fictional characters and events to describe some subject by suggestive resemblances; an extended metaphor

  Familiarity information: ALLEGORY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALLEGORY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A short moral story (often with animal characters)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

allegory; apologue; fable; parable

Hypernyms ("allegory" is a kind of...):

story (a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "allegory"):

Aesop's fables (a collection of fables believed to have been written by the Greek storyteller Aesop)

Instance hyponyms:

Pilgrim's Progress (an allegory written by John Bunyan in 1678)

Derivation:

allegorical (used in or characteristic of or containing allegory)

allegorise (make into an allegory)

allegorise (interpret as an allegory)

allegorize (make into an allegory)

allegorize (interpret as an allegory)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A visible symbol representing an abstract idea

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

allegory; emblem

Hypernyms ("allegory" is a kind of...):

symbol; symbolic representation; symbolisation; symbolization (something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "allegory"):

Hakenkreuz; swastika (the official emblem of the Nazi Party and the Third Reich; a cross with the arms bent at right angles in a clockwise direction)

spread eagle (an emblem (an eagle with wings and legs spread) on the obverse of the Great Seal of the United States)

medallion (an emblem indicating that a taxicab is registered)

maple-leaf (the emblem of Canada)

Agnus Dei; Paschal Lamb (figure of a lamb; emblematic of Christ)

badge (an emblem (a small piece of plastic or cloth or metal) that signifies your status (rank or membership or affiliation etc.))

Magen David; Mogen David; Shield of David; Solomon's seal; Star of David (a six-pointed star formed from two equilateral triangles; an emblem symbolizing Judaism)

red flag (the emblem of socialist revolution)

hammer and sickle (the emblem on the flag of the Soviet Union)

ensign; national flag (an emblem flown as a symbol of nationality)

fasces (bundle of rods containing an axe with the blade protruding; in ancient Rome it was a symbol of a magistrate's power; in modern Italy it is a symbol of fascism)

elephant (the symbol of the Republican Party; introduced in cartoons by Thomas Nast in 1874)

eagle (an emblem representing power)

dove (an emblem of peace)

donkey (the symbol of the Democratic Party; introduced in cartoons by Thomas Nast in 1874)

cupid (a symbol for love in the form of a cherubic naked boy with wings and a bow and arrow)

scarlet letter (the letter A in red; Puritans required adulterers to wear it)

Derivation:

allegorical (used in or characteristic of or containing allegory)

allegorise (make into an allegory)

allegorise (interpret as an allegory)

allegorize (make into an allegory)

allegorize (interpret as an allegory)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An expressive style that uses fictional characters and events to describe some subject by suggestive resemblances; an extended metaphor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("allegory" is a kind of...):

expressive style; style (a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period)

Derivation:

allegoric; allegorical (used in or characteristic of or containing allegory)

allegorise (make into an allegory)

allegorise (interpret as an allegory)

allegorize (make into an allegory)

allegorize (interpret as an allegory)

 Context examples 

No one knew me, for I disguised my voice, and no one dreamed of the silent, haughty Miss March (for they think I am very stiff and cool, most of them, and so I am to whippersnappers) could dance and dress, and burst out into a 'nice derangement of epitaphs, like an allegory on the banks of the Nile'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)