allegory

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a story which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, usually a moral or political one.

   The Lord of the Rings is often cited as an allegory for World War II.

2. 2
   noun

   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.

   In theſe teſtimonies vvhich they alledge of the ſcripture there are certayne, vvhiche are vvell nere of no vvayghte, but there is none of them, but eyther it is darke vvith the myſte of allegorie: or els it dothe receyue dyuerſe and manifolde interpretations.

3. 3
   noun

   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.

   [T]houghe ſome woordes ſpoken by the mouthe of Chriſt written in ſcripture, be to be vnderſtanden only by way of a ſimilitude or an allegory: it foloweth not therupõ [thereupon] that of neceſſitye euerye like woorde of Chriſt in other places was none other but an allegory.

4. 4
   noun

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

   [T]he Harp of Ireland, puts me in mind, of that Glorious Embleme, or Allegory, vvherein the vviſdome of Antiquity, did figure, and ſhadovv out, vvorks of this Nature.

5. 5
   noun

   an expressive style that uses fictional characters and events to describe some subject by suggestive resemblances

6. 6
   noun

   a visible symbol representing an abstract idea

7. 7
   noun

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

8. 8
   verb

   Synonym of allegorize.

Etymology

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 Bibl…