Definition of Allegory
1. Noun. A short moral story (often with animal characters).
Generic synonyms: Story
Specialized synonyms: Aesop's Fables
Specialized synonyms: Pilgrim's Progress
Derivative terms: Allegorical, Allegorise, Allegorise, Allegorize, Allegorize, Fabulist, Fabulous, Parabolic, Parabolical
2. Noun. A visible symbol representing an abstract idea.
Generic synonyms: Symbol, Symbolic Representation, Symbolisation, Symbolization
Specialized synonyms: Scarlet Letter, Cupid, Donkey, Dove, Eagle, Elephant, Fasces, Ensign, National Flag, Hammer And Sickle, Red Flag, Magen David, Mogen David, Shield Of David, Solomon's Seal, Star Of David, Badge, Agnus Dei, Paschal Lamb, Maple-leaf, Medallion, Spread Eagle, Hakenkreuz, Swastika
Derivative terms: Allegorical, Allegorise, Allegorise, Allegorize, Allegorize, Emblematic, Emblematic, Emblematical
3. Noun. An expressive style that uses fictional characters and events to describe some subject by suggestive resemblances; an extended metaphor.
Derivative terms: Allegoric, Allegorical, Allegorise, Allegorise, Allegorize, Allegorize
Definition of Allegory
1. 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.
Definition of Allegory
1. Noun. The representation of abstract principles by characters or figures. ¹
2. Noun. A picture, book, or other form of communication using such representation. ¹
3. Noun. A symbolic representation. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Allegory
1. a story presenting a moral principle [n -RIES]
Allegory Pictures
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Lexicographical Neighbors of Allegory
Literary usage of Allegory
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. English Pageantry: An Historical Outline by Robert Withington (1918)
"."1 Lydgate brought allegory to the pageant; and we may surmise that, being an
author of allegorical poems, he did not draw upon the morality, ..."
2. The Monthly Review by Ralph Griffiths (1772)
"... but I believe neither author had even the moft dînant notion of an allegory.
... Here alfo you find the allegory finely pu.-fued throughout; yet not fo ..."
3. The Complete Works of John Lyly by John Lyly (1902)
"ON THE allegory IN ENDIMION NEARLY sixty years ago the Rev. ... In the first
place it is necessary to observe that the allegory in Endimion is twofold. ..."
4. Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews by Robert Lowth (1829)
"THE third species of allegory, which also prevails much in the prophetic poetry,
is when a double meaning is couched under the same words ; or when the same ..."
5. A Study of the Types of Literature by Mabel Irene Rich (1921)
"The Prose allegory.—The prose allegory is a prose form in which there is a long
... The greatest prose allegory in the literature of the world * is Bunyan's ..."
6. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1918)
"allegory has always l>een largely used. The Greek writers made use of it, especially
Plato, Homer and Hera- clitus. Sometimes the sacred writers themselves ..."
Other Resources Relating to: Allegory
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