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View synonyms for parable

parable

[ par-uh-buhl ]

noun

  1. a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.

    Synonyms: apologue, homily, allegory

  2. a statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison, analogy, or the like.


parable

/ ˈpærəbəl; pəˈræbəlɪst /

noun

  1. a short story that uses familiar events to illustrate a religious or ethical point parabolicparabolical
  2. any of the stories of this kind told by Jesus Christ
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • parabolist, noun
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Other Words From

  • pa·rab·o·list [p, uh, -, rab, -, uh, -list], noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of parable1

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”
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Word History and Origins

Origin of parable1

C14: from Old French parabole, from Latin parabola comparison, from Greek parabolē analogy, from paraballein to throw alongside, from para- 1+ ballein to throw
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Compare Meanings

How does parable compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

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Example Sentences

That interpretation is visible in the movie’s design, with the Round Table and the castle rendered in dull, almost industrial grays and harsh lighting, and there are ways to read the film as an environmental parable, too.

From Vox

The investment was also a depressing parable for capitalism today.

Some of his encounters over the past few days have felt like contemporary parables, King says.

It was a parable about “what is relevant is life — not worrying about ideology, about politics, about whether he is a commie or a capitalist.”

Longevity research always reminds me of the parable of blind men and an elephant.

The anecdote is a perfect parable for the power and ignorance of artistic patrons.

He recounts a parable that has long been a staple of dairy farm folklore.

Expecting otherwise is enough to make one recite the parable of the Old Woman and the Snake.

What seems at first to be novel about gender inequity gradually reveals itself to be a parable about social class.

Equilateral can be read as a parable of the ways we blind ourselves through vanity, love, and greed.

The resurrection of Lazarus is a transparent fabrication out of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

So I have had to convey my precepts insensibly to Milord K.—to convey them in homeopathic doses of parable.

Here is Christianity with its marvellous parable of the Prodigal Son to teach us indulgence and pardon.

The moral of the parable of the ten talents is eminently true in matters of learning.

It 148 was rather the parable of family life that I read in this succession of fair faces and shapely bodies.

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