Meanings
comparative more allusive · superlative most allusive
- that contains or makes use of allusions (indirect references or hints)
The footnotes ensure that the lines become more allusive and more polysemantic, vacillating between transubstantiation and ghostly intimations.
2010, James Matthews, “Late Modernism and the Marketplace”, in Edwina Keown, Carol Taaffe, editors, Irish Modernism, page 1723 more examples
English poetry is compelled by the stubbornness of the language continually to renounce the too obviously poetic: but in seeking to be more precise, more dense and more allusive, Russian poetry has never had to give up the straightforward traditional intoxications of sound and rhyme.
1984, John Bayley, Two pieces on translating Mandelstam: Selected Essays, page 1492013, Nick Nicholas, George Baloglou (translators and editors), Introduction, Unknown author, An Entertaining Tale of Quadrupeds, [14th c, Παιδιόφραστος διήγησις τῶν ζῴων τῶν τετραπόδων], page 87, The Book is a more allusive work than the Tale, which leads to speculation on whether the digressions in both works might not merely be a case of a rambling narrator.
Around they go, taking in the poem's allusive system of images and its narrative density, the emotional heat of its subject matter, its increasing cultural salience re: women, re: trauma, re: bodies, re: life at the end of the world.
2023, Brandon Taylor, chapter 1, in The Late Americans, pages 1-2Synonyms: suggestive
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivethat contains or makes use of allusions (indirect references or hints)
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivecharacterized by indirect references
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Bulgarian намекващ, загатващ
- намекващ (namekvašt)containing or making use of allusions
- загатващ (zagatvašt)containing or making use of allusions
Catalan al·lusiu
- al·lusiucontaining or making use of allusions
Chinese Cantonese 暗指嘅
- 暗指嘅 (am³ zi² ge³)containing or making use of allusions
Czech plný narážek
- plný narážekcontaining or making use of allusions
Dutch zinspelend
- zinspelendcontaining or making use of allusions
Finnish vihjaileva
- vihjailevacontaining or making use of allusions
French allusif
- allusifcontaining or making use of allusions
Irish tagrach
- tagrachcontaining or making use of allusions
Italian allusivo
- allusivocontaining or making use of allusions
Polish aluzyjny
- aluzyjnycontaining or making use of allusions
Portuguese alusivo
- alusivocontaining or making use of allusions
Romanian aluziv
- aluzivcontaining or making use of allusions
Spanish alusivo
- alusivocontaining or making use of allusions
Rhymes & wordplay
Sounds the same
Cite this entry
allusive. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/allusive
“allusive.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/allusive. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “allusive,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/allusive.
Source: allusive on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.