allusive

adjective

al·​lu·​sive ə-ˈlü-siv 

-ziv

: characterized by or containing allusion : making implied or indirect references

Both men employ a densely allusive prose, richly embedded with the fruit of their reading, and both use language as a tool by which to explore and define themselves.

—Michiko Kakutani

One way that Cuarón avoids solipsism is to keep his own most consequential experiences to the story's margins—his parents' split is portrayed obliquely, through allusive moments and eavesdropped conversations.

—Ann Hornaday

allusively adverb

He speaks so rapidly and so allusively that listening to a lecture by him is an exhausting as well as an enriching experience.

—Gertrude Himmelfarb

allusiveness noun

Ballet can't convey historical detail; its power is in allusiveness, in imagery, in suggesting states of mind and emotion that words cannot capture.

—Roslyn Sulcas

Examples of allusive in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Image Image Hovsepian, who was born in Isfahan, Iran, and grew up in Toledo, Ohio, makes allusive, shadowy photographs and assemblages that are in the permanent collections of New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. —Max Berlinger Stefan Ruiz, New York Times, 18 Mar. 2024

Some are allusive, like the way Sang-won has acquired Ui-ju’s habit of spicing up instant ramen with chilli paste. —Jessica Kiang, Variety, 11 Oct. 2023

Ray Johnson, a master of the collage, made work that was cryptic, obsessive, and densely allusive. —Vince Aletti, The New Yorker, 22 July 2022

Their plots were complex, nested, allusive, the sort of TV that demanded activity and attention rather than passivity. —Phillip MacIak, The New Republic, 24 Aug. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1607, in the meaning defined above