allegory

noun [ˈæləˌɡɔɹi]

pronunciation

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary via pipeline/ipa-en.mjs (allegory present); no frequency figure, open source

Allegory is an extended figure or work where concrete persons, events, or images consistently stand for other, usually abstract, contents; foil to metaphor and to symbol.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Definitions

ling. / rhet. / lit. Work or trope: a chain of figures, events, or images systematically points to typically abstract meanings (virtues, ideas, social critique). Axis: a sustained, coherent sense transfer across the whole construct, not a single metaphor transfer and not a single open symbol.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
hist. lex. Webster 1913 prints ALLEGORY (Al\"le*go*ry); pl. Allegories. Skeat 1910: ALLEGORY (L. from Gk.); ἄλλο- (ἄλλος) + ἀγορεύειν / ἀγορά; Wyclif Gal. iv. 24. Arct 1921 indexes Polish Alegorja. Brückner 1927 omits a dedicated alegoria card.

source
Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (ALLEGORY Al\"le*go*ry; Allegories); W. W. Skeat 1910 (ALLEGORY; ἄλλο-; ἀγορεύειν; ἀγορά; Wyclif Gal. iv. 24); M. Arct 1921 (Alegorja); A. Brückner 1927 (no alegoria lemma), open source
didact. / rhet. In language and literature teaching, allegory sits beside metaphor, irony, euphemism, and hyperbole: metaphor is one likeness transfer, allegory develops a coherent image chain with a second sense plane, symbol is a sign with open resonance. Scope of the borders needs review.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
colloq. Everyday talk may dump any "deeper" story under this tag. This entry holds one rhetorical axis: deliberate building of a second sense plane through a chain of persons, events, or images, foil to a single metaphor transfer.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Examples

A journey through a city of virtues and vices is textbook allegory (concrete figures mark abstract contents); a neighbour wrongly filed a single metaphor in the same exercise.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
The morning block drilled allegory; metaphor notes returned as the one-transfer foil, and symbol stood beside as the open-resonance sign.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Reading list: Webster 1913 for ALLEGORY (Al\"le*go*ry; Allegories), Skeat 1910 (ALLEGORY; ἄλλο- + ἀγορεύειν; Wyclif Gal. iv. 24), Arct 1921 (Alegorja), Brückner 1927 (no separate lemma).

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Treating every allegory as plain metaphor erased the sustained-chain-versus-one-transfer split at once.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Board order: allegory, metaphor, symbol, irony, so the image chain stayed apart from one transfer, from an open sign, and from sense reversal.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Usage

Casual talk may stamp any deeper story as allegory with no named axis. Seminar work peels layers: deliberate, consistent marking of abstract meanings (virtues, ideas, social critique) by concrete persons, events, or images across the whole construct; metaphor as foil (one likeness transfer); symbol as foil (open sign resonance); plus lexicon notes. Webster keeps ALLEGORY (Al\"le*go*ry) and Allegories. Skeat gives ἄλλο- + ἀγορεύειν / ἀγορά. Arct keeps Alegorja. Brückner skips a separate lemma. Without those layers only an empty "deeper story" slogan remains.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Open-book record: Webster 1913 shows ALLEGORY with stress on Al and a figurative discourse where the principal subject is described by another resembling it; emblem; painting and sculpture figure with meaning beyond the object; note that an allegory is a prolonged metaphor; syn. Metaphor, fable. Skeat (1910) cites ME allegorie (Wyclif Gal. iv. 24), from L. allegoria and Gk. ἀλληγορία with ἄλλο- + ἀγορεύειν / ἀγορά; der. allegor-ic, allegor-ise. Arct (1921) indexes Alegorja. Brückner 1927 leaves a dedicated lemma out. Facts here; derivation under etymology.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (ALLEGORY; Allegories); W. W. Skeat 1910 (ALLEGORY; ἄλλο-; ἀγορεύειν); M. Arct 1921 (Alegorja); A. Brückner 1927 (no separate lemma), open source

Scholarly English marks sustained marking of abstract contents by concrete images. Careful editors discard worksheets that treat every metaphor as allegory and discard glosses that never name the image chain. The allegory / metaphor / symbol border stays debated in seminars. Chronology of the label stays blank until a primary source page is cited. Polish counterpart: alegoria (SGJP present).

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Classrooms revisit sustained-marking talk in tropes and set allegory against metaphor, irony, euphemism, hyperbole, litotes, metonymy, synecdoche, rhetoric, and semantics. CMUdict has the allegory lemma (pipeline IPA). Polish alegoria sits in SGJP. Already live: metaphor, irony, euphemism, hyperbole, litotes, metonymy, synecdoche, oxymoron, rhetoric, semantics. Without the sustained-chain axis the label collapses.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (ALLEGORY); CMUdict (allegory present); SGJP / Morfeusz 2 (alegoria present), open source

Word forms

Countable noun: singular allegory / plural allegories. Related forms in Skeat/Webster: allegorical, allegorize, allegorist. CMUdict lemma present.

forms in use

przypadek	forma
singular	allegory
plural	allegories
adjective	allegorical (Webster / Skeat)
verb	allegorize (Skeat allegor-ise)

Word forms: Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (ALLEGORY; Allegories); W. W. Skeat 1910 (allegor-ic; allegor-ise; allegor-ist); CMUdict (allegory present) · source

Collocations

literary allegory

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
political allegory

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
allegory versus metaphor

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
sustained marking of abstract by concrete

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
distinguish allegory from symbol

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Synonyms · Antonyms

Synonyms image narrative with a second plane (loose descriptive neighbour; check scope at review), prolonged metaphor (approximation from Webster note; check scope at review), alegoria (Polish counterpart; SGJP present; check scope at review), sustained figurative discourse (approximation; check scope at review)

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Antonyms literal narration without a second plane (contrast: no sustained abstract marking; check scope at review), single metaphor (scale contrast: one transfer, not a chain; not a clean antonym of the label alone), relation without sense transfer (contrast neighbour: no second plane; check at review)

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Etymology

English allegory rests on the Greek axis recorded in Skeat under ALLEGORY: Gk. ἀλληγορία (description of one thing under the image of another); ἄλλο- (stem of ἄλλος, another) + ἀγορεύειν (to speak) / ἀγορά (public assembly); L. allegoria; ME allegorie (Wyclif Gal. iv. 24); der. allegor-ic, allegor-ise, allegor-ist. Webster 1913 indexes ALLEGORY (Al\"le*go*ry) with an etymology line through L. allegoria and Greek, plus related Allegories. Arct 1921 keeps Polish Alegorja. Brückner 1927 offers no dedicated alegoria card. We avoid copying dictionary wording. Polish counterpart: alegoria.

source

W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910 (ALLEGORY; ἄλλο-; ἀγορεύειν; ἀγορά; Wyclif Gal. iv. 24), open source

also

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (ALLEGORY: Al\"le*go*ry; Allegories), open source

also

M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921 (Alegorja), open source

also

A. Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, Kraków 1927 (no alegoria lemma), open source

Related words

metaphor , foil along the scale axis (one likeness transfer, not a chain); EN pair already live
irony , trope neighbour; EN pair already live
euphemism , trope neighbour (etiquette softening); EN pair already live
hyperbole , foil along the scale axis (overstatement); EN pair already live
litotes , trope neighbour (understatement); EN pair already live
metonymy , trope neighbour (contiguity transfer); EN pair already live
synecdoche , trope neighbour (part for whole); EN pair already live
oxymoron , trope neighbour (contrary pair); EN pair already live
rhetoric , domain of tropes; EN pair already live
semantics , sense and transfer neighbour; EN pair already live
alegoria , Polish counterpart (SGJP present; Arct Alegorja; Webster ALLEGORY)

Related entries

The same entry in Polish: alegoria

Questions and answers

What does allegory mean?

The word names a setup where a second sense plane steers the whole construct: virtues, ideas, or social critique surface under concrete figures and events. Metaphor stays at one transfer. Symbol stays at an open sign. Irony reverses sense. Hyperbole stretches.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

How does allegory differ from metaphor?

Allegory builds a longer image run with a fixed second sense (figures of virtues and vices). Metaphor stays at one likeness transfer. Casual speech blurs them; the scale axis differs.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

How does allegory differ from symbol?

Allegory deliberately leads a chain of concrete persons, events, or images toward set abstract contents. Symbol leaves open sign resonance, not necessarily in a sustained plot. That is the scale and closure foil, not a synonym.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Where does the word allegory come from, and what forms sit with it?

From Greek: ἄλλο- (ἄλλος, another) + ἀγορεύειν / ἀγορά; Skeat 1910 (Wyclif Gal. iv. 24). Webster 1913: ALLEGORY (Al\"le*go*ry); related allegorical, allegorize. Arct 1921: Alegorja. Brückner 1927 omits a dedicated card. Forms: allegory / allegories. IPA from CMUdict: /ˈæləˌɡɔɹi/. Polish pair: alegoria (SGJP present).

source

Editorial team; facts: W. W. Skeat 1910; Webster 1913; CMUdict (allegory present); SGJP / Morfeusz 2 (alegoria present), open source