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

To allude to Frank Sinatra, you did it your way.

From MarketWatch ● May 13, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026

“I thank you all very much for helping me, and I’ll thank you still more if you won’t allude to it for a month, at least.”

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

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

The piñata functions as a focal point into the scene as a whole, and alludes to one of the biggest gathering cultures in L.A., a very joyous scene of celebration.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 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

It’s their rapport that explains how the work gets done in the pressure cooker Johnson alluded to.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

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

Kimmel alluded to the Walt Disney Co. network’s ongoing dispute with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr as the reason for the switch.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an astute student of both politics and pop culture, has coyly alluded to the wedding chatter during press conferences.

From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026

Our conversation on the previous night had hardly alluded to that approach.

From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson

The documents contained upsetting information alluding to the reason she was taken into care, alongside court records and a personal letter from her social worker.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026

Metaphorically alluding to the satirical newspaper “The Onion,” the narrator says that to pull off this operation, the team had to stick together like layers of an onion: “Never forget, onion is strength.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 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

"There's a limit to what companies can absorb," Rainey told CNBC, alluding to the $2 billion impact.

From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026

She fed me without alluding to my poverty, and from then on I continued to visit her.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

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