Allegory

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: al=le=go=ry

CIDE DICTIONARY

Allegory, n. [L. allegoria, Gr. , description of one thing under the image of another; other + to speak in the assembly, harangue, place of assembly, fr. to assemble: cf. F. allégorie.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  Anything which represents by suggestive resemblance; an emblem.  [1913 Webster]
•  A figure representation which has a meaning beyond notion directly conveyed by the object painted or sculptured.  [1913 Webster]

  "An allegory is a prolonged metaphor. Bunyan's “Pilgrim's Progress” and Spenser's “Faërie Queene” are celebrated examples of the allegory."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Metaphor; fable.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Allegory, n. (pl. -ies)
1 a story, play, poem, picture, etc., in which the meaning or message is represented symbolically.
2 the use of such symbols.
3 a symbol.

Derivative

allegorist n.

Etymology

ME f. OF allegorie f. L allegoria f. Gk allegoria f. allos other + -agoria speaking

THESAURUS

Allegory

Marchen, Western, Western story, Westerner, adventure story, allusion, analogy, apologue, arcane meaning, assumption, balancing, bedtime story, charactery, cipher, coloration, comparative anatomy, comparative degree, comparative grammar, comparative judgment, comparative linguistics, comparative literature, comparative method, compare, comparing, comparison, confrontation, confrontment, connotation, contrast, contrastiveness, conventional symbol, correlation, detective story, distinction, distinctiveness, emblem, fable, fabliau, fairy tale, fantasy, fiction, figuration, folk story, folktale, gest, ghost story, hint, horse opera, iconology, ideogram, implication, implied meaning, import, inference, innuendo, intimation, ironic suggestion, legend, likening, logogram, logotype, love knot, love story, matching, meaning, metaphor, metaphorical sense, mystery, mystery story, myth, mythology, mythos, nuance, nursery tale, occult meaning, opposing, opposition, overtone, parable, parallelism, pictogram, presumption, presupposition, proportion, relation, romance, science fiction, shocker, simile, similitude, space fiction, space opera, subsense, subsidiary sense, suggestion, supposition, suspense story, symbol, symbolic system, symbolism, symbolization, symbology, thriller, tinge, token, totem, totem pole, touch, trope of comparison, type, typification, undercurrent, undermeaning, undertone, weighing, whodunit, work of fiction

ROGET THESAURUS

Allegory

Comparison

N comparison, collation, contrast, identification, comparative estimate, relative estimate, relativity, simile, similitude, analogy (similarity), allegory, matching, pattern-matching, ratio, proportion (number), discrimination, indiscrimination, identification, comparative, metaphorical, compared with, comparable, judged by comparison, relatively, as compared with, comparisons are odious, comparisons are odorous.

Metaphor

N metaphor, figure of speech, facon de parler, way of speaking, colloquialism, phrase, figure, trope, metaphor, enallage, catachresis, metonymy, synecdoche, autonomasia, irony, figurativeness, image, imagery, metalepsis, type, anagoge, simile, personification, prosopopoeia, allegory, apologue, parable, fable, allusion, adumbration, application, exaggeration, hyperbole, association, association of ideas (analogy), metaphorical, figurative, catachrestical, typical, tralatitious, parabolic, allegorical, allusive, anagogical, ironical, colloquial, tropical, so to speak, so to say, so to express oneself, as it were, mutato nomine de te fabula narratur.