parable
Americannoun
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a short story that uses familiar events to illustrate a religious or ethical point
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any of the stories of this kind told by Jesus Christ
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of parable
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English parabil, from Late Latin parabola “allegory, comparison, word,” from Greek parabolḗ “comparison,” from para- para- 1 + bolḗ “a throw”
Compare meaning
How does parable compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A parable is a short and simple story that teaches a religious or moral lesson. The parable of the Good Samaritan and the parable of the Prodigal Son are just two examples of the many parables attributed to Jesus, as recorded in the four gospels. Parable descends from the Greek parabolē, "a comparison, analogy," from paraballein, "to compare," from the prefix para-, "beside," plus ballein, "to throw." The sense of comparing, or throwing an idea beside another, is at the heart of the word. When you hear a parable, you're meant to use the comparison to learn how to act — the fox's "sour grapes" are compared to your own downgrading of the thing you cannot have.
Vocabulary lists containing parable
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I've Been to the Mountaintop" (1968)
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American Born Chinese
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Swindon, for so long a political bellwether, is perhaps providing a parable of Englishness.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
The situation resembles the parable of the scorpion and the turtle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
As Mr. Meslow observes, on some level “Twin Peaks” was always a parable about nostalgia’s dangers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Coogler’s period piece-meets-horror parable heads into Sunday’s awards ceremony with a record-breaking 16 nominations to Anderson’s 13 nods for “One Battle.”
From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2026
When I chuckled at the older woman’s invocation of the parable, she laughed, too.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
As Sam Sacks writes, “Ms. Strout has developed her true mastery in an archetypal mode, writing stories that resemble secular parables or everyman morality dramas.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
His genial demeanour and penchant for folksy parables belie a past as a wily guerrilla fighter and ruthless political survivor.
From Barron's ● Jan. 12, 2026
I was so green in the world that I hadn’t accepted there could be parables without a moral, questions without an answer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025
But Martin’s stories, along with being informed by actual history, are parables of power struggles among the ruling classes.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2024
He paced, paused, spoke, and paced behind his palm-leaf altar, giving every impression he was inventing his Biblical parables on the spot.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
