Allegory

/ˈælɪɡəɹi/ · noun

Meaning

(uncountable, rhetoric) The use of symbols which may be interpreted to reveal a hidden, broader message, usually a moral or political one, about real-world issues and occurrences; also, the interpretation of such symbols..

Definitions by Sense

1. (uncountable, rhetoric) The use of symbols which may be interpreted to reveal a hidden, broader message, usually a moral or political one, about real-world issues and occurrences; also, the interpretation of such symbols.
2. A picture, story, or other form of communication in which one or more characters, events, or places are used to reveal a hidden, broader message about real-world issues and occurrences.
3. A character or thing which symbolically represents someone or something else; an emblem, a symbol.
4. A category that retains some of the structure of the category of binary relations between sets, representing a high-level generalization of that category.
5. (archaic) Synonym of allegorize.

Example Sentences

In theſe teſtimonies vvhich they alledge of the ſcripture there are certayne, vvhiche are vvell nere of no vvayghte, but there is none of them, but eyther it is darke vvith the myſte of allegorie: or els it dothe receyue dyuerſe and manifolde interpretations.

As some of the finest compositions among the ancients are in allegory, I have endeavoured, in several of my papers, to revive that way of writing, and hope I have not been altogether unsuccessful in it; […]

Allegory Metaphors continues still, / Which with new graces every sentence fill.

Allegory and Poetic Delineation, as I said above, cannot be religious Faith: the Faith itself must first be there, then Allegory enough will gather round it, as the fit body round its soul.

[T]houghe ſome woordes ſpoken by the mouthe of Chriſt written in ſcripture, be to be vnderſtanden only by way of a ſimilitude or an allegory: it foloweth not therupõ [thereupon] that of neceſſitye euerye like woorde of Chriſt in other places was none other but an allegory.

[…] Abraham had two ſonnes, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman, was borne after the fleſh: but hee of the freewoman, was by promiſe. Which things are an Allegorie; for theſe are the two Couenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. […] But Jeruſalem which is aboue is free, which is the mother of vs all.

[T]hey held the Creed in the plain literal ſenſe thereof vvithout any ſhuffling Allegories, […]

And thus it vvas: I vvriting of the VVay / And Race of Saints, in this our Goſpel-Day, / Fell ſuddenly into an Allegory / About their Journey, and the vvay to Glory, / In more than tvventy things, vvhich I ſet dovvn; […]

Synonyms for allegory

Antonyms for allegory

Related Words

Word Forms

• allegories
• allegorying
• allegoried

Usage Notes

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