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Meaning of ALLEGORY

Pronunciation:  'alu`gowree

WordNet Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
  1. [n]  an expressive style that uses fictional characters and events to describe some subject by suggestive resemblances; an extended metaphor
  2. [n]  a short moral story (often with animal characters)
  3. [n]  a visible symbol representing an abstract idea
 
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 Synonyms: apologue, emblem, fable, parable
 
 See Also: Aesop's fables, Agnus Dei, badge, donkey, dove, eagle, elephant, ensign, expressive style, fasces, Hakenkreuz, hammer and sickle, Magen David, maple-leaf, medallion, Mogen David, national flag, Paschal Lamb, red flag, scarlet letter, spread eagle, Star of David, story, style, swastika, symbol, symbolic representation, symbolisation, symbolization

 

 

Products Dictionary
 
 Definition: 

Allegory
The National Gallery Pocket Guides series, beautifully illustrated from one of the greatest collections of Old Master paintings in the world, introduces central themes in the history of Western art. ALLEGORY illustrates the main types of visual allegory and the contexts in which they were originally created and viewed. 70 color & 2 b&w; illustrations.

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Webster's 1913 Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
\Al"le*go*ry\, n.; pl. {Allegories}. [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. all['e]gorie.]
1. 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.
2. Anything which represents by suggestive resemblance; an
   emblem.
3. (Paint. & Sculpt.) A figure representation which has a
   meaning beyond notion directly conveyed by the object
   painted or sculptured.
Syn: Metaphor; fable.
Usage: {Allegory}, {Parable}. ``An allegory differs both from
       fable and parable, in that the properties of persons
       are fictitiously represented as attached to things, to
       which they are as it were transferred. . . . A figure
       of Peace and Victory crowning some historical
       personage is an allegory. ``I am the Vine, ye are the
       branches'' [--John xv. 1-6] is a spoken allegory. In
       the parable there is no transference of properties.
       The parable of the sower [--Matt. xiii. 3-23]
       represents all things as according to their proper
       nature. In the allegory quoted above the properties of
       the vine and the relation of the branches are
       transferred to the person of Christ and His apostles
       and disciples.'' --C. J. Smith.
Note: An allegory is a prolonged metaphor. Bunyan's
      ``Pilgrim's Progress'' and Spenser's ``Fa["e]rie
      Queene'' are celebrated examples of the allegory.
 
Easton Bible Dictionary
 
 Definition: 

used only in Gal. 4:24, where the apostle refers to the history of Isaac the free-born, and Ishmael the slave-born, and makes use of it allegorically.

Every parable is an allegory. Nathan (2 Sam. 12:1-4) addresses David in an allegorical narrative. In the eightieth Psalm there is a beautiful allegory: "Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt," etc. In Eccl. 12:2-6, there is a striking allegorical description of old age.

 
Thesaurus Terms
 
 Related Terms: 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, Marchen, 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, Western, Western story, Westerner, whodunit, work of fiction
 

 

 

 

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