as in allegory
a story intended to teach a basic truth or moral about life the film is an apologue of sorts, but the message is couched in a zany and action-filled plot

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for apologue
Noun
  • It’s been described as an allegory for current issues such as climate change.
    Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 20 Mar. 2025
  • Crouch used a canonical children’s fantasy movie as allegory for the the legal hurdles the district faced in relation to the proposal to split.
    Cody Copeland, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 15 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Absurd parables like this one have been taken seriously by some of the loudest voices in Silicon Valley, many of whom are now warning that AI is an existential risk, more dangerous than nuclear weapons.
    Bryan Walsh, Vox, 5 Mar. 2025
  • Jameson seeks accounts of its daily life instead of parables of repression, and finds them in long novels by Günter Grass and Uwe Tellkamp.
    Mark Greif, Harper's Magazine, 26 July 2024
Noun
  • Many of our favorite stories, fables and rhymes came from the volumes of the set of Childcraft Books published in 1954 which accompany our family’s ages-old set of World Book Encyclopedias.
    Philip Potempa, Chicago Tribune, 21 Feb. 2025
  • Drawing on ancient folklore, fables and myths, Chainey’s film was branded a ‘folk horror’, a promise the film could not live up to.
    Damon Wise, Deadline, 31 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • From casting backlash and political dustups to a lingering conversation of how to portray the tale's dwarfs in 2025, here's a timeline detailing the Snow White live-action remake's controversies.
    Randall Colburn, EW.com, 21 Mar. 2025
  • The five performers take on an endless stream of characters, but each is assigned a principle character that solidly ground the tale.
    Frank Rizzo, Variety, 21 Mar. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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“Apologue.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apologue. Accessed 3 Apr. 2025.

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