7389739698 | Albatross around one's neck | Alludes to the poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is used to talk about an unfortunate person having to carry a burden on their shoulders. | 0 | |
7389855086 | "Balm in Gilead" | This is an allusion to the Old Testament in the Bible. It means healing or the need to be healed. | 1 | |
7389922621 | Big Brother | This is an allusion to George Orwell's book, Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is used as a warning ("Big Brother is watching you.") since it refers to a ruler or government that invades a citizen's privacy. | 2 | |
7389961989 | Cain and Abel | This is an allusion to a story in the Bible. It means enmity, or feeling hostile towards someone, between people. | 3 | |
7390297319 | Camelot | This is an allusion to a legend. It means a place or a time of ideal happiness. | 4 | |
7390048833 | Carpe Diem | This phrase means seize the day and is an allusion to Robert Frost's poem "Carpe Diem." | 5 | |
7390063379 | Cassandra | This is an allusion to Greek mythology. When someone is referred to as a Cassandra, it means that they repeatedly predict an incident that leads to misfortune, but no one ever believes them. | 6 | |
7390179288 | Catch 22 | This is an allusion to Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22. It means an absurd or no-win situation. | 7 | |
7390261655 | Cheshire Cat | This alludes to the cat with an enormous grin in Alice in Wonderland. If someone is called a Cheshire cat, it means they have a big, visible, long-lasting smile. | 8 | |
7390347650 | Crown of Thorns | This is an allusion to the Crucifixion of Jesus. It means a painful burden someone has to bear or something that ridicules or disrespects someone. | 9 | |
7390453340 | Daniel in the Lion's Den | This is an allusion to a story in the Bible. It means extreme bravery. | 10 | |
7390547922 | Falstaffian | This is an allusion to Shakespeare's character Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV. It refers to someone who is full of wit and sexual humor. | 11 | |
7390575431 | Florence Nightingale | This is an allusion to a person in history. If someone is compared to Florence Nightingale, it means they are compassionate, caring, and determined. | 12 | |
7390672224 | Hobbit-like | This is an allusion to J.R.R. Tolkien's novel, the Hobbit. It is used to describe someone who is like a hobbit (short, hairy, and big feet). | 13 | |
7390882406 | Holden Caulfield | This is an allusion to a character in The Catcher in the Rye. To pull a Holden Caulfield means to go on a trip with no set goal in mind. | 14 | |
7390993601 | "It's Greek to Me" | This is an allusion to a Shakespeare story. It means that all foreign languages sound the same because they are unintelligible. | 15 | |
7391077531 | Judas | This is an allusion to a person in the Bible. It is used to describe someone who back stabbed or betrayed someone else. | 16 | |
7391133110 | Kafkaesque | This is an allusion to the writings of Frank Kafka. It is used to describe craziness. | 17 | |
7391200472 | Land of Lilliput | This is an allusion to Gulliver's Travels. It is used to describe something small or irrelevant. | 18 | |
7391265932 | Lucifer | This is an allusion to a fallen angel from the Bible, better known as the devil. This is used to describe someone who is devil-like and dark. | 19 | |
7401295134 | Manna from Heaven | This is an allusion to a story in the Bible. This is used as a way to say that people need to work for what they want because they will not receive it for free like the Israelites received their free manna. | 20 | |
7518676863 | Mephistophelean | This is an allusion to a demon in the Christian world. It is used as a description towards the devil or towards devilish deeds. | 21 | |
7518724875 | Muse | This is an allusion to the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne in Greek Mythology. This is used to describe someone who inspires an artist to do what they do. | 22 | |
7518760639 | Oedipus Complex | This is an allusion to Sophocles's Oedipus. It is defined by Freud as the attraction that a child feels, typically during the ages of 3-5, towards the parent of the opposite sex. | 23 | |
7518827695 | Pandora's Box | This is an allusion to Greek Mythology. This is commonly used in the phrase, "Don't open Pandora's Box," which means to do something that might seem insignificant, but that ultimately has large long term consequences. | 24 | |
7521013397 | Panglossian | This is an allusion to Volitaire's book, Candide. It is used to describe someone who is blindly or misleadingly optimistic. | 25 | |
7521050559 | Procrustes | This is an allusion to Greek Mythology. He would invite people to his home, and when they went to bed, he would either cut off their legs if they were taller than the length of the bed or stretch them out until they were the length of the bed if they were shorter. This is used to describe someone who always tries to make something fit their criteria. | 26 | |
7521176225 | Prodigal Son | This is an allusion to the Bible. This is used to describe someone who does not live up to the expectations of his parents or guardian(s). | 27 | |
7521241705 | Prufrock | This is an allusion to the poem "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. It is used to describe someone who is timid or shy or someone who is indecisive and has many unfulfilled desires. | 28 | |
7521305387 | Puck | This is an allusion to A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare. It is used to describe someone who is silly and clever or mischievous. | 29 | |
7521331773 | Pygmalion | This is an allusion to Roman Mythology. It is used to describe a man who creates a perfect woman for himself based on his standards and falls in love with her. | 30 | |
7521391667 | Scheherazade | This is an allusion to a female Arabian storyteller who narrated the stories of the Arabian Nights. It is used to describe a woman who is a great storyteller. | 31 | |
7521418779 | Scylla and Charybdis | This is an allusion to Greek Mythology. They are both monsters, one being a 6-headed monster and another being a whirlpool. It is used to tell someone they are between two dangers or two mistakes, so even if you avoid one, you'll still end up at the other. | 32 | |
7521447822 | Siren's Song | This is an allusion to Greek Mythology. It refers to something that is hard to resist. | 33 | |
7521476400 | Star-Crossed Lovers | This is an allusion to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It is used to describe a doomed relationship. | 34 | |
7521500887 | Summa Cum Laude | This means "with highest honor" and is used to indicate the level at which a student's academics are at. This was done in Europe since the Middle Ages and did not start in America until 1869 at Harvard. | 35 | |
7521529577 | Swiftian | This is an allusion to the satirist, Jonathan Swift. It is used to describe something satirical. | 36 | |
7521598363 | Sword of Damocles | This is an allusion to Greek Mythology. This is used to describe a situation in which something bad is bound to happen soon. | 37 | |
7521643521 | Trojan Horse | This is an allusion to Greek Mythology. It is used to describe something that may appear beneficial, but is actually malicious. | 38 | |
7521662432 | "Water, water, everywhere" | This is an allusion to lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." It is used to describe a situation where someone is surrounded by plentiful things but cannot use any of them. | 39 |
AP Literature Allusions Flashcards
Primary tabs
Need Help?
We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.
For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.
If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.
Need Notes?
While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!