allegorys

Noun

allegory (countable and uncountable, plural allegories)

1. (rhetoric, uncountable) 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.1533, Erasmus of Roterdame, “The Fourth Instruction”, in William Marshall, transl., A Playne and Godly Exposytion or Declaration of the Commune Crede (which in the Latin Tonge is Called Symbolum...
2. (broadly) 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.1533 (date written), Thomas More, “A Letter of Sir Thomas More Knight Impugning the Erroniouse Wryting of John Frith agaynst the Blessed Sacrament of the Aulter”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William...
3. (broadly) 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.1606 (date written), Francis Bacon, “[Severall Discourses, Written, in the Dayes of King James, […].] Certain Considerations, Touching the Plantation in Ireland. Presented to His Maiesty, 1606.”, in...
4. (broadly) A category that retains some of the structure of the category of binary relations between sets, representing a high-level generalization of that category.

See all 9 meanings of allegory