Allude Meaning
/əˈljuːd/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
verbTo refer to something indirectly or by suggestion; to invoke it by implication rather than mention.
Sentence Examples
I did not mean to allude to your previous mistakes.
She would often allude to her time spent in Paris.
During his speech, he did not allude to the ongoing controversy.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The speaker chose not to ____ to the scandal during his formal address.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He didn't say it directly, but he did ____ to the secret problem.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French alluder, from Latin alludere (“to play with or allude”), from ad + ludere (“to play”). See also al-.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"It was aptly said by Newton that "whatever is not deduced from facts must be regarded as hypothesis," but hypothesis appears to us a title too honourable for the crude guessings to which we allude."
— 1846, George Luxford, Edward Newman, The Phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany: Volume 2, Part 2, page 474:
"We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year."
— 2012 January 26, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2012, page 23:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The speaker chose not to ____ to the scandal during his formal address.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He didn't say it directly, but he did ____ to the secret problem.