allusion

See also: Allusion

English

Etymology

From Latin allūsiōnem, accusative singular of allūsiō (“the act of playing with”), from allūdō (“play with; allude”), from al-, combining form of ad (“to”), + lūdō (“play”): compare French allusion.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ʌˈlu.ʒən/
• Rhymes: -uːʒən

Noun

allusion (countable and uncountable, plural allusions)

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

Translations

indirect reference, hint

• Arabic: تَلْمِيح‏‎ m (talmīħ)
• Armenian: ակնարկ (hy) (aknark)
• Bulgarian: намек (bg) (namek), загатване (bg) (zagatvane)
• Catalan: al·lusió f
• Chinese: 含义 (zh) (hán·yì)
• Danish: hentydning c
• Dutch: allusie (nl) f, toespeling (nl) f, zinspeling f
• Finnish: alluusio, viittaus (fi), vihje (fi)
• Galician: alusión f
• German: Anspielung (de) f, Allusion f
• Greek: νύξη (el) f (nýxi), υπαινιγμός (el) m (ypainigmós)
• Hungarian: utalás (hu)
• Irish: ailléideach m (literary)
• Italian: allusione (it) f

• Latvian: alūzija (lv) f, mājiens m
• Luxembourgish: Allusioun f
• Norwegian: allusjon (no) m, hentydning c
• Persian: تلمیح‏‎ (fa) (talmih)
• Polish: aluzja (pl)
• Portuguese: alusão (pt) f
• Russian: аллю́зия (ru) f (alljúzija), намёк (ru) m (namjók)
• Scottish Gaelic: iomradh m, luaidh m
• Spanish: alusión (es)
• Sundanese: ᮞᮤᮔ᮪ᮓᮤᮁ (sindir)
• Swedish: allusion (sv) c, anspelning (sv) c
• Tagalog: parunggit
• Turkish: gönderme (tr)

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French

Etymology

From Latin allūsiōnem, accusative singular of allūsiō (“the act of playing with”), from allūdō (“allude”).

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

allusion f (plural allusions)

1. allusion, innuendo

   En parlant ainsi, il faisait allusion aux mœurs de son temps.

   In speaking thus, he was alluding [literally making allusion] to the mores of his time.

Further reading

• “allusion” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).