How to use allusion in a sentence

Examples of allusion by meaning

More sentences with allusion

• I'm surprised that even the allusion to Hamlet flew over his head. Even someone who barely knows Shakespeare might catch that one!From the entry Shakespeare
• The allusion is to the small myrtlelike fruits, not unlike blueberries, of these cacti.2013, A. W. Smith, A Gardener's Handbook of Plant Names: Their Meanings and Origins. From the entry myrtlelike
• Who could miss this real-life king’s deft allusion to the importunities of the overweening pseudo-king in the White House?2026 May 2, Simon Tisdall, “The king went to Washington to save Britain’s bacon. He may also have shown the US how to save itself”, in The…. From the entry overweening
• Both allusions required some squinting to identify.2025 November 5, Alison Herman, “Lorne in Limbo”, in Variety, volume 370, number 2, →ISSN, page 39. From the entry make fetch happen
• When he spoke, he spoke in allusion, literarily, often pausing to check, with a look, whether I followed.2023, Justin Torres, Blackouts, Granta Books (2024), page 41. From the entry literarily
• The poem's dense allusions to ascension emphasize the apotheotic atmosphere.2016, Branko van Oppen de Ruiter, Berenice II Euergetis: Essays in Early Hellenistic Queenship. From the entry apotheotic
• Actually, forget Joycean or Bellovian or any other authorial allusion.2012 September 7, Jess Walter, “'Telegraph Avenue,' by Michael Chabon”, in SFGate, archived from the original on 08 Sep 2012; quoted in…. From the entry Chabonesque
• But it's not an entirely unapt allusion, either.1988 July 3, Joe Brown, “MCMIZ”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC. From the entry unapt
• An allusion to the garlic breath of the groundlings provides a forescent of the evil smells that pervade the Genoan court.1986, Charles R. Forker, chapter 1, in Skull Beneath the Skin: The Achievement of John Webster, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University…. From the entry forescent
• We can all start off feeling back-patty and warm with our secret selves, having identified a literary allusion.1969 May, book review, The Strayed Reveller, number 3, page 7. From the entry back-patty
• A similar pattern, mingling elements of alliteration, assonance, quasi-rhyme, and meaningful allusion ingeniously is seen in the following example.1967, Roman Jakobson (contributor), To Honor Roman Jakobson - Essays on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, 11 October 1966 · Issue…. From the entry quasi-rhyme
• That is probably an overflush allusion .1937, Robert Phillips, Edward McChesney Sait, American Government and Its Problems, page 676. From the entry overflush
• At one point, her spidery abstractions gave way to a series of abruptly syncopated hits, like a deranged allusion to the Thelonious Monk tune “Evidence.”2015 June 18, Nate Chinen, “Review: Eric Revis Trio Lets the Music Lead the Way at the Jazz Gallery”, in The New York Times, archived from…. From the entry abstraction
• The Sorting Hat’s song, with its Dumbledorean pleas for unity and its allusions to the coming war, certainly foreshadows events in the final two books.2009, James W. Thomas, Repotting Harry Potter: A Professor’s Book-by-Book Guide for the Serious Re-Reader, Zossima Press, →ISBN, page 196. From the entry Dumbledorean
• In fact, Hamsun now completes his allusion to the story of the Gadarene swine alluded to by Pauline in the previous novel.2005, Sverre Lyngstad, Knut Hamsun, Novelist: A Critical Assessment, Peter Lang, page 294. From the entry Gadarene swine
• Its vernacular name, cutete policía, is in allusion to the flat casque, said by some to resemble the service cap worn by Guatemalan police.1998 Campbell, Jonathan A. Amphibians and reptiles of Northern Guatemala, the Yucatán, and Belize p. 154-155. ISBN: 0-8061-3064-4. From the entry casque
• These and other writers also consciously strive for jazz's full-bodied swingingness, its danciness, its range of allusion, its trickbag of quicksilver improvisational impulses.1998, Robert G. O'Meally, The Jazz Cadence of American Culture, page 536. From the entry danciness
• With their internal rhymings and cryptic puns and allusions, Williams's lines of dialogue may tax the actor as well as the audience.1996, Charles Adolph Huttar, Peter J. Schakel, The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams, page 228. From the entry rhyming
• So the reference to the plucking of the ginger flower is again an indirect allusion to the taking of the girl's maidenhead .1995, Ruth H. Finnegan, Margaret Orbell, Reader in Maori Head of Department of Maori Margaret Orbell, South Pacific Oral Traditions…. From the entry maidenhead
• The vèvè for Simbi, lord of healing, bristles with all sorts of allusions to the Kongo medicines of God, leaves, horns, water, and stars.1995, Robert Farris Thompson, in Cosentino (ed.), Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, South Sea International Press 1998, p. 103. From the entry veve
• Sand underscores the allusion to Eve with the creation of an Edenesque climate in the description of the living space Mother and Daughter occupy.1994, Tamara Alvarez-Detrell, Michael G. Paulson, The Traveler in the Life and Works of George Sand, page 146. From the entry Edenesque
• Written during the years of war and revolution, Tristia is full of portents of the end, of allusions to a funereal, twilit, and decembrish world.1987, Charles Isenberg, Substantial Proofs of Being: Osip Mandelstam’s Literary Prose, Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, Inc., →ISBN…. From the entry Decembrish
• Frequently he brought his points home with topical allusions: timely newspaper clippings or public utterances, constituting a sort of sottisier or scrapbook of contemporary fatuities.1961, Harry Levin, Irving Babbitt and the Teaching of Literature, Harvard University Press, page 10. From the entry sottisier
• As we move from Montagu's own theorization of translation to her complex recusative acts of allusion and finally to her Virgilian allegories, we can track two coextensive performances .2019, Daniel O'Quinn, Engaging the Ottoman Empire: Vexed Mediations, 1690-1815, page 166. From the entry recusative
• Energy and Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal described it as an "unbelievable mistake" while Junior Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier said it was "ubuesque" (nonsensical), an allusion to absurdist theatre.2014 May 21, Tu Thanh Ha, “New train cars in France too wide for hundreds of stations”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 21 May 2014. From the entry ubuesque
• This is an allusion to Hermes as the guide of souls, the psychopomp; an important element of Hermes' nature that receives only this scant mention in the Hymn.2012, Dennis L. Merritt, Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory, volume 3, page 43. From the entry psychopomp
• But some of the gathered skirts, with an extra tire of fabric around the middle, looked dustily Yamamoto, with pious allusions to women in bonnets and rustic stoles.2008 February 27, Cathy Horyn, “Not Everyone Spins Their Wheels”, in New York Times. From the entry dustily
• The Decameron , like Boccaccio's other writings, is thick with allusions to stories and passages in the Comedy; Boccaccio also transcribed and composed a commentary on the poem.2001 July 29, R. W. B. Lewis, “'Dante'”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 19 Apr 2022. From the entry Boccaccio
• As the time went on and the impenetrable Carrados made no allusion to the case, Carlyle's manner inclined to a waggish commiseration of his host's position.1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados. From the entry waggish
• Last year, it may be remembered, my allusions, such as they were, to the Pageant fever that obsessed the country (Pageantitis) were couched in somewhat supercilious vain.1907 May 8, “The Oxford Pageant”, in The Bystander, volume XIV, number 179, London, page 280. From the entry pageant fever

Meaning of allusion

1. noun An indirect reference; a hint; a reference to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned.

Full definition of allusion

More about allusion

• Meaning of allusion
• Plural of allusion
• Allusion in Urdu
• Allusion in Bengali
• Allusion in Malayalam
• Allusion in Kannada

Questions about allusion in a sentence

How do you use allusion in a sentence?

Allusion is used as a noun. For example: “I'm surprised that even the allusion to Hamlet flew over his head. Even someone who barely knows Shakespeare might catch that one!”

What is a short sentence with allusion?

“Both allusions required some squinting to identify.”

What does allusion mean?

Allusion means an indirect reference; a hint; a reference to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned.