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

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”

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

Although that project was scrapped, Variety magazine said the second season of The Studio will allude to the attempts to bring Madonna's story to the big screen.

From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026

I allude to the setting of steel traps for catching vermin.

From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman

In genteel phrasing, Ancora also alludes to the fact that Paramount would itself remain woefully undersized if it doesn’t merge with Warner.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026

"Every pundit alludes to it, but it all comes down to mental resilience. 'Bazball' has been elevated to a term now that is just, like, nonsense cricket," added Rory.

From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2025

“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

Yet, what his post alludes to implicitly is that the concept of “middle-class” has evolved over the last few decades, and not in a good direction.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2025

I have taken this story entirely from Sophocles’ play of that name except for the riddle of the Sphinx which Sophocles merely alludes to.

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

He alluded to rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, who have called for tighter controls on the technology.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

As Musk alluded to, if SpaceX hands out compute like candy, then things could get tight.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 27, 2026

His mother laments he "would not do as he was told" but it is his father's cautionary tale to other children which was the moral Sir Desmond alluded to.

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026

Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film is directly alluded to on the walls of one of Renton’s nightclub haunts, which are decorated like the Korova Milkbar.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026

During a May conference at Caltech honoring the visiting Niels Bohr, he alluded to the lightweight neutron while describing the disintegration of eight heavy targets, up to aluminum, by deuton bombardment.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

"It will be Africa's second world war," he said, alluding to the 1998-2003 Congo war that involved nine African nations.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 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

Coffin was especially interested in alluding to the work of special effects master Ray Harryhausen, who created the creepy hovering aircraft in 1956’s “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

Halliday was alluding to a famous ’70s hacker named John Draper, better known by the alias Captain Crunch.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline