Allusion
An indirect reference to another text, person, event, or work — often quoted.
An allusion is an indirect reference to something outside the text: a phrase from Shakespeare, a Bible story, a historical event, a film. The reference is not spelled out; the writer trusts the reader to recognise it.
Allusion compresses meaning. 'He met his Waterloo' communicates an entire historical drama in three words, but only to a reader who knows the battle. The risk is exclusion: an allusion that lands for one audience can baffle another.
Famous quotations are themselves the source of countless allusions. A line like 'the road not taken' or 'to thine own self be true' travels because writers can fold it into new sentences and assume recognition.
“Chocolate is his Achilles' heel.”
Keep reading the glossary
A figure of speech that describes one thing as if it were another.
A comparison that uses 'like' or 'as' — 'my love is like a red, red rose'.
A passage repeated verbatim from a written or spoken source, with attribution.
The art of persuasive speaking and writing — the discipline behind every great quoted line.