: 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
Michiko KakutaniOne 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
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
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
Roslyn Sulcas
Examples of allusive in a Sentence
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Harari set out to write something deliberately open-ended — an allusive, elusive work channeling anxieties around digital atomization through a decidedly analog visual style.
—Ben Croll, IndieWire, 15 May 2026
Christen Goff, the First Lady of the Detroit Lions, hasn’t landed the allusive print cover.
—Sean Joseph Outkick, FOXNews.com, 12 May 2026
The dense, allusive text foretold the future of his small business and tens of thousands like it.
—Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic, 17 Mar. 2026
Where An Orange Colored Day was gestural and allusive, A Rush to Nowhere is direct.
—Stephen Kearse, Pitchfork, 11 Mar. 2026
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Ben Croll, IndieWire, 15 May 2026
Christen Goff, the First Lady of the Detroit Lions, hasn’t landed the allusive print cover.
—Sean Joseph Outkick, FOXNews.com, 12 May 2026
The dense, allusive text foretold the future of his small business and tens of thousands like it.
—Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic, 17 Mar. 2026
Where An Orange Colored Day was gestural and allusive, A Rush to Nowhere is direct.
—Stephen Kearse, Pitchfork, 11 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for allusive
Cite this Entry
“Allusive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/allusive. Accessed 1 Jun. 2026.
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