What does allegorizing mean?
Allegorizing is the practice of interpreting or composing a work as an allegory — treating its literal surface as a veil over a deeper symbolic, moral, political, or spiritual meaning. When readers allegorize a text, they look past what it plainly says to what it secretly signifies: medieval theologians allegorized the Song of Songs as the love between Christ and the Church, while critics might allegorize a modern novel as a fable about power or exile. The term also covers the creative side — writers who deliberately construct allegories are said to be allegorizing. The word carries a scholarly register and appears most often in literary criticism, biblical studies, and art history. It can carry a faintly critical connotation when an interpreter's symbolic reading seems imposed rather than intended by the author.
verb (present participle and gerund)To interpret or represent something as an allegory — that is, to treat a story, text, or image as conveying a hidden moral, political, or spiritual meaning beneath its literal surface.
- To interpret a text, artwork, or event as an allegory, extracting a deeper symbolic or moral meaning from its literal content.
- To compose or express something in the form of an allegory.
"Medieval scholars spent centuries allegorizing Homer, finding Christian morals in pagan myths."
"The critic was accused of allegorizing the novel to suit her own political reading."
"Bunyan was allegorizing the Christian life when he sent Pilgrim down the path to the Celestial City."
For centuries, readers allegorized Plato's myths so heavily that some ancient texts survived mainly because interpreters refused to take them literally.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of allegorizing
The word derives from Greek allēgorein, 'to speak so as to imply something other,' formed from allos ('other') and agoreuein ('to speak publicly'), via Latin allegoria. The English verb allegorize emerged in the late sixteenth century, and allegorizing is simply its present participle and gerund. Cognates include allegory, allegorical, and allegorist, all descending from the same Greek root.
Related word forms
How allegorizing is actually used
A scholarly, literary-critical term used chiefly in academic writing on literature, theology, and art history. As a gerund it can denote both a method of interpretation and a mode of composition.
Easily confused with allegorizing
An allegory is the allegorical work itself (a story with a hidden meaning), while allegorizing is the act of interpreting or creating such meaning.