Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Does anyone agree that 'allegorical' and 'fabulous' are not synonyms?

adjectives I believe

No, I don't agree - see under 'legendary' here


http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/allegorical?s=t

oh well.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/allegorical

Thanks both for the contributions. I am aware that both are adjectives, but I would never use them as synonyms. 'Fabulous' as in fabled, implies just that: an element of untruth or doubt, myth etc. 'Allegorical' always implies a comparative element, sometimes to something that is a myth, but not necessarily.

Just looked in Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary:

Fable Aesop, Allegory, Apologue, Exemplum, Fiction, Hitopadesa, La Fontaine, Legend, Lie, Marchen, Milesian, Myth, Panchatandra, Parable, Romance, Tale, Tarand

'This dictionary is the result of over fifty years' analysis of some 300,000 crossword clues, ranging from plain 'quick' crosswords requiring only synonyms to the different level of cryptic puzzles. Therefore the words listed at each entry may be connected to the keyword in various ways, such as:

- a straightforward synonym

- a commonly-associated adjective

- an associated or proper noun

- a pun or other devious play on words'

Hope this helps

They are certainly not synonyms. I agree entirely with your remarks, Harlequin! And Chambers only confirms that.

@gk

Did you read my post from Bradford's? We are talking about usage in crosswords here.

Harlequin, I have no problems seeing 'allegorical' and 'fabulous' being used in this way. I don't think a fable 'implies an element of untruth or doubt'. A fable can be defined as 'any tale in literary form, not entirely probable in its incidents, intended to instruct.' An allegory is 'a narrative intended to be understood symbolically'.

Harlequin's question was whether we think the two words are synonyms or not. Obviously the question of crossword usage is a different one, possibly with a different answer.
Second point: allegories are indeed extended literary symbols, whereas fables are not by nature symbols in that sense. It is part of the definition of fables that they are not based on fact. They may convey a moral, but are not symbolic. An allegory works as an emblem.
This difference is also made abundantly clear in the Oxford Dictionary definition. I think no-one would dispute that the two terms can overlap, but they are never identical, which is the point of synonyms, at least strictly speaking.