allude

American  

[uh-lood] / əˈlud /

verb (used without object)

• alludes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• alluded,
  past participle,  past
• alluding
  present participle

1. to refer casually or indirectly; make an allusion (usually followed byto ).

   He often alluded to his poverty.

2. to contain a casual or indirect reference (usually followed byto ).

   The letter alludes to something now forgotten.

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allude British  

/ əˈluːd /

verb

1. to refer indirectly, briefly, or implicitly

2. (loosely) to mention

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Commonly Confused

See elude

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preallude
  verb (used without object)

Inflected Forms

Participles

• alluding
  present
• alluded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• allude
  simple
• alludes
  simple
• have alluded
  perfect
• has alluded
  perfect
• am alluding
  progressive
• are alluding
  progressive
• is alluding
  progressive
• have been alluding
  perfect progressive
• has been alluding
  perfect progressive

Past

• alluded
  simple
• had alluded
  perfect
• was alluding
  progressive
• were alluding
  progressive
• had been alluding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will allude
  simple
• will have alluded
  perfect
• will be alluding
  progressive
• will have been alluding
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of allude

First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin allūdere “to play beside, make a playful allusion to,” equivalent to al- al- + lūdere “to play”

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Explanation

When you allude to something, you don't identify it or mention it specifically. If you allude to the fact that a cop is sitting right behind you, your friends might stop talking about their plans to rob a bank. Allude is from Latin allūdere "to play with, joke" from the prefix ad- "toward" plus lūdere "to play." The corresponding noun is allusion, which is often used of an indirect reference in literature: Helen, a fitting name for a woman of great beauty, is an allusion to Helen of Troy.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

allude alludes alluded alluding

The statement appears to allude to a number of high-profile dossiers handled by Khan.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

“Mine,” in this sense, doesn’t simply allude to something Corvette will steal; she’s referring to all the invisible things that comprise a mass-produced product — the labor and energy and time.

From Salon ● May 22, 2026

In its review, the Hechinger Report found other companies that similarly allude to fictitious government programs.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 30, 2026

In a statement Tuesday that didn’t allude to the suspended deliveries, the Central Bank of Iraq said it wasn’t short of U.S. currency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026

Many people would admire Odin’s horse, but only a brave man would ever mention its parentage in Loki’s presence, and nobody ever dared to allude to it twice.

From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman

Iñárritu portrays the average person as a seal, ready to bark and clap at anything that so much as alludes to reality.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

On TikTok and Instagram, a person's "aura" alludes to their style or attitude, with "100% aura" high praise for the most effortlessly cool persona.

From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026

These paintings, many completed after Ms. Emin’s cancer surgery, show a degree of artistic renewal and maturation that the exhibition’s title alludes to.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

“Degen” is a term that alludes to degenerate gamblers and first gained popularity on Reddit to refer to investors who gravitate toward wildly risky strategies.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025

Catullus tells several of the stories, and Horace alludes to them often, but neither is important for mythology.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

They’re helped out by credulous writers who’ve alluded to vague, anonymized conversations with people in the Bay Area about the same 10 percent probability of imminent extinction for a while now.

From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2026

In those letters, published by the Daily Beast, she has thanked the president for “always being there” for her and alluded to a “promise” Trump made to her after she lost her dad.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026

Warsh alluded to this mechanism Wednesday: “Even while at some level we haven’t done much in 42 days, the markets have done quite a bit.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

The IMF pointed to the unsettled nature of the Mideast conflict and also alluded to a possible backlash against artificial intelligence that damages stock markets.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026

We had talked around him, alluded to him without quite mentioning him.

From "Kindred" by Octavia Butler

Talking to reporters Monday at the White House, Trump, alluding to an Asian trip next month to attend a regional economic conference, again floated the prospect of a get-together with Kim.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

She mentioned financial stability risks, alluding to what many investors and analysts see as a bubble in AI-related firms’ soaring stocks and expanding borrowing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

She decided to share a video online and many women contacted her with similar stories, alluding that this is a wider issue throughout Northern Ireland.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

“During my year long journey, I have discovered how cruel, evil and greedy a human can be,” she wrote, seemingly alluding to the legal battle but not naming her daughter-in-law.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

The carefully orchestrated proceeding faltered only once, when Neylan asked Serber a dangerous hypothetical question alluding to the case of Haakon Chevalier.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

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