allegory

CEFRC2

/ˈælɪɡəɹi/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A story in which characters and events represent deeper ideas.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A character or thing which symbolically represents someone or something else; an emblem, a symbol.

Examples

  • Ibn Tufail also criticized Islam through a literary process called allegory.

  • The ship of fools was a popular allegory in medieval art and literature.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. A category that retains some of the structure of the category of binary relations between sets, representing a high-level generalization of that category.

More examples

In context

  • 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.

  • There were casts of the Gladiator—he whose native courage struggled against the doom which was yet welcome—a mournful allegory of honour.

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Origin

noun

The noun is derived from Late Middle English allegorie (“symbolic interpretation; symbolism; (Christianity) one of the four methods of interpreting the Bible”) + English -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state). Allegorie is borrowed from Anglo-Norman allegorie and Middle French allegorie (“narrative with a hidden meaning; such a meaning or its interpretation”) (modern French allégorie), and directly from their etymon Latin allēgoria (“figurative or metaphorical language, allegory; parable”) (whence Late Latin allēgoria (“allegorical interpretation of the Bible”)), from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓λληγορῐ́ᾱ (ăllēgorĭ́ā, “figurative or metaphorical language”), probably...