Definition of apologuenext
as in allegory
a story intended to teach a basic truth or moral about life the film is an apologue of sorts, but the message is couched in a zany and action-filled plot

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for apologue
Noun
  • As playful as the movie is, its central tale of persecution and resistance plays not like an allegory but like a communion, a linking of the times—the inspiration of conscience by the revelation of past heroism, political and artistic.
    Richard Brody, New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2026
  • But if these movies are progressive allegories of beings transcending their differences, then Hoppers is a surprisingly blunt pushback to that notion.
    David Sims, The Atlantic, 26 Mar. 2026
Noun
  • Coogan was poking fun at tech companies’ impulse to name themselves after myths and parables, even when those myths and cultural artifacts have negative associations.
    Diego Lasarte, New Yorker, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Plato’s prescient understanding of ICE agents arose during a discussion of the parable of the Ring of Gyges.
    Paul Rosenzweig, Washington Post, 9 Feb. 2026
Noun
  • Described as a political fable that combines elements of a crime thriller with epic tragedy, the plot of Minotaur sees a Russian corporate executives preparing to carry out mass layoffs, who discovers his wife is having an affair.
    Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 18 Mar. 2026
  • That lurid fable was followed by 2023’s Pictures of Ghosts, an impressionistic documentary that told the parallel stories of Mendonça Filho’s life in movies and Recife’s decaying cinemas.
    Michael Snyder, The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2026
Noun
  • Jude relocates this tale of troubled conscience to present-day Cluj-Napoca, in Transylvania, and subjects it to a corrosively cynical twist.
    Justin Chang, New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2026
  • My confidence was further bolstered when Zenker informed me about Beau Miles, an adventure filmmaker known for documenting his self-experiments, who, back in 2020, when an entirely different disaster descended upon us, ate only beans for 40 days (191 cans to be exact)—and lived to tell the tale.
    Ayana Underwood, Outside, 27 Mar. 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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“Apologue.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apologue. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

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