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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for apologue
Noun
  • But Machete is also a still-timely political allegory about a monstrous conspiracy targeting Mexican immigrants.
    Tom Gliatto, People.com, 9 Aug. 2025
  • On a personal level, Moving’s allegory of superpowers as disability—cemented by disabled superhero Lee Jae-man (Kim Sung-kyun)—is an overdue approach to the genre.
    Geoffrey Bunting, Time, 1 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • The playwrights intended the drama as an allegorical parable for the age shaped by Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy.
    Time, Time, 10 July 2025
  • The story is often described as a parable of freedom versus control.
    Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 5 July 2025
Noun
  • Allusions to myths, fables, and riffs on common idioms abound, many of them evocative and quite funny.
    Lora Kelley, New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2025
  • As three people with remote connections to a house try to solve two brutal murders, the story becomes increasingly complicated and implausible, evolving into a fable about a cursed family.
    Pat Tompkins, AFAR Media, 18 June 2025
Noun
  • The two met in secret, and some versions of the story suggest their love lives on only in death, much like the Western tale of Romeo and Juliet.
    Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 11 Aug. 2025
  • With all due respect to the pressures of making an unconventional sci-fi film on a tight budget, using ecologically destructive technology for a story of ecological devastation, in which clean water is an increasingly rare resource, adds an unintentionally grim layer of irony to the tale.
    Josh Slater-Williams, IndieWire, 11 Aug. 2025
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 20 Aug. 2025.

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