Allusion, Metaphor and Cultural References

C2 · 100 entries · Five themes

Allusion, Metaphor and Cultural References

Created by , British English teacher.

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1. Established allusions (20 entries)
  1. a Sisyphean task
  2. an albatross around your neck
  3. a Kafkaesque situation
  4. a poisoned chalice
  5. a Gordian knot
  6. a Faustian bargain
  7. a Herculean task
  8. an Orwellian nightmare
  9. a Pyrrhic victory
  10. allegory
  11. fabulate
  12. mystique
  13. hermetic
  14. fabled
  15. happenstance
  16. archetype
  17. haphazard
  18. pyre
  19. solipsism
  20. wallow
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2. Metaphorical frames (20 entries)
  1. metaphorical extension
  2. conceptual metaphor
  3. conventional metaphor
  4. target domain
  5. dead metaphor
  6. source domain
  7. a slow-burning crisis
  8. a sticking plaster for a deeper problem
  9. a watershed in public opinion
  10. a flash in the pan
  11. a tipping point in the debate
  12. a stumbling block
  13. the last nail in the coffin
  14. a shot in the arm
  15. a perfect storm
  16. a ticking time bomb
  17. an accident waiting to happen
  18. a canary in the coal mine
  19. the engine of growth
  20. the fault lines in a coalition
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3. Cultural Expressions (20 entries)
  1. throw down the gauntlet
  2. the thin end of the wedge
  3. cross the Rubicon
  4. a Sisyphean struggle
  5. a Damascene conversion
  6. a Pandora's box
  7. an Orwellian turn of phrase
  8. a millstone round one's neck
  9. tilt at windmills
  10. a curate's egg
  11. a Faustian pact
  12. a sword of Damocles
  13. a Kafkaesque ordeal
  14. cut the Gordian knot
  15. a latter-day David and Goliath
  16. a Cassandra figure
  17. a fool's errand
  18. the straw that broke the camel's back
  19. by any stretch of the imagination
  20. proverbial
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4. Contextual interpretation (20 entries)
  1. intertextuality
  2. read against the grain
  3. a litmus test
  4. the seeds of division
  5. conceptualisation
  6. recontextualisation
  7. intentionality
  8. a sea change in attitudes
  9. intrinsic
  10. reconceptualisation
  11. anaphoric reference
  12. recontextualise
  13. rhetorical
  14. the bedrock of trust
  15. regulative
  16. self-reference
  17. instantiation
  18. ontology
  19. cataphoric reference
  20. demarcation
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5. Appropriate use and restraint (20 entries)
  1. figurative restraint
  2. gratuitous reference
  3. obscure allusion
  4. cultural specificity
  5. punitive
  6. normativity
  7. proscription
  8. abhorrent
  9. abhor
  10. countenance
  11. hamper
  12. adulterate
  13. abject
  14. banish
  15. rife
  16. enabler
  17. locus standi
  18. remove a dangling reference
  19. opulence
  20. mull over
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