allude / elude

Allude and elude are both verbs. They sound similar, though not identical, but their meanings are different. If you click on the previous links, you will find yourself at each definition at Merriam-Webster, a venerable American dictionary of English. Besides definitions and written pronunciation descriptions, this dictionary offers audio files for most entries. Click on the little red speaker next to a word to hear a North American say the word aloud. This feature is especially useful for words we confuse with others and for big words that we only know through reading, but have never heard anyone say before. This situation happens to me all the time when I read history.

The dictionary also shows you how to use each word, though I wish the examples were more extensive. That’s the main reason I still recommend that people buy a suitable dictionary for that purpose. There, are, however, other online options. Two I recommend are the Cambridge Dictionary of American English and the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Or you could get links to a whole bunch of different dictionary definitions at the same time using OneLook. The links appear on the left and a few “quick definitions” appear in a box on the right. The option to view several definitions can come in handy for words that are particularly difficult to understand. It can also help you find out which online dictionaries work best for you. You might want to be cautious of the quick definitions, though, since users can also add them.

By now I hope you have looked up both allude and elude, if you were not completely sure about their difference. If so, then you will appreciate why someone cannot write about how a text eludes to an event in the past. Such a statement makes no sense. Elude means escape or avoid, and it does not use the preposition to. Instead we can write about how a text alludes to something in the past, that is, how it refers indirectly to that thing.

Here’s a good example of allude that I found on USA Today by googling the phrase “Obama alluded” with quotation marks:

Obama alluded to his historic status as the nation’s first black nominee of a major party during his appearance here, telling the audience that “I’m proud of America for giving me this opportunity because obviously we all know it’s a sign of enormous growth in this country.”

He referred to his unique achievement as the first presumptive African-American nominee of the Democratic or Republican party, but without coming out and saying so directly.

And here’s an example of elude: “Killer eluded police with fake names.”

Finally, here’s a more idiomatic usage of elude: Please don’t allow the differences in meaning between words that sound similar elude you. Use a dictionary. (And read this blog.)

Related post: Fighting Poor English Usage lists my other shorter posts on specific words, and it points to a related blog’s posts on confusing word pairs.