Allegory1. (n.) A figurative discourse, in which the principal subject is described by another subject; a parable. 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. (n.) Anything which represents by suggestive resemblance; an emblem.
3. (n.) A figure representation which has a meaning beyond notion directly conveyed by the object painted or sculptured.
Thesaurus Entries
Marchen, Western, Western story, Westerner, adventure story, allusion, analogy, apologue, arcane meaning, assumption, balancing, bedtime story, charactery, cipher, coloration, comparative anatomy, comparative degree, comparative grammar, comparative judgment, comparative linguistics, comparative literature, comparative method, compare, comparing, comparison, confrontation, confrontment, connotation, contrast, contrastiveness, conventional symbol, correlation, detective story, distinction, distinctiveness, emblem, fable, fabliau, fairy tale, fantasy, fiction, figuration, folk story, folktale, gest, ghost story, hint, horse opera, iconology, ideogram, implication, implied meaning, import, inference, innuendo, intimation, ironic suggestion, legend, likening, logogram, logotype, love knot, love story, matching, meaning, metaphor, metaphorical sense, mystery, mystery story, myth, mythology, mythos, nuance, nursery tale, occult meaning, opposing, opposition, overtone, parable, parallelism, pictogram, presumption, presupposition, proportion, relation, romance, science fiction, shocker, simile, similitude, space fiction, space opera, subsense, subsidiary sense, suggestion, supposition, suspense story, symbol, symbolic system, symbolism, symbolization, symbology, thriller, tinge, token, totem, totem pole, touch, trope of comparison, type, typification, undercurrent, undermeaning, undertone, weighing, whodunit, work of fiction