Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Allegory
Al′le-go-ry
,Noun.
pl.
Allegories
. [L.
allegoria
, Gr. [GREEK], description of one thing under the image of another; [GREEK] other + [GREEK] to speak in the assembly, harangue, [GREEK] place of assembly, fr. [GREEK] to assemble: cf. F. allégorie
.] 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.
–
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.
An allegory is a prolonged metaphor. Bunyan’s “Pilgrim's Progress” and Spenser's “Faërie Queene” are celebrated examples of the allegory.
Webster 1828 Edition
Allegory
AL'LEGORY
,Noun.
A figurative sentence or discourse, in which the principal subject is described by another subject resembling it in its properties and circumstances. The principal 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. Allegory is in words that hieroglyphics are in painting. We have a fine example of an allegory in the eightieth Psalm, in which God's chosen people are represented by a vineyard. The distinction in scripture between a parable and an allegory, is said to be that a parable is a supposed history, and an allegory, a figurative description of real facts. An allegory is called a continued metaphor. The following line in Virgil is an example of an allegory.
Claudite jam rivos, pueri, sat prata biberunt.
Stop the currents, young men, the meadows have drank sufficiently; that is let your music cease, our ears have been sufficiently delighted.
Definition 2024
allegory
allegory
English
Noun
allegory (plural allegories)
- The representation of abstract principles by characters or figures.
- A picture, book, or other form of communication using such representation.
- A symbolic representation which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, usually a moral or political one.
- (mathematics, category theory) A category that retains some of the structure of the category of binary relations between sets, representing a high-level generalisation of that category.
Derived terms
Translations
the representation of abstract principles
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communication using such representation
symbolic representation