allege
Formsalleges, alleging, alleged
- 1To put forward a claim as justification or proof; to assert something without offering proof.
Prosecutors allege that the company hid millions in offshore accounts.
Critics alleged that the study's data had been manipulated.
Similarclaim, assert, contend, maintain, charge
Oppositedeny
Note
Two ideas live in this sense at once: a claim offered as proof, and a claim not yet proved. It usually takes a that-clause, as in "the agency alleged that my credit history had problems", and whoever reports the claim stays neutral about its truth. That neutrality makes the verb at home in legal and news writing about accusations, because it can name a charge without endorsing it.
- 2To bring forward or cite something as a reason, excuse, or ground of support.
In her defense, she alleged years of loyal service to the firm.
The committee can allege budget constraints to justify almost any delay.
Note
The object here is the ground itself: a story, a record of service, a shortage of money, brought forward to support a point or excuse a lapse. In John Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essayes (1603), the writer will "alleage a storie" to make readers feel a truth. Unlike the "unproven claim" meaning, nothing here signals doubt. The reason is simply produced, and the verb sits close to adduce.
- 3To cite or quote an author or text as an authority for or against a position.
Medieval disputants alleged Augustine on both sides of the question.
Renaissance writers would allege Cicero to lend weight to their own prose.
Note
Here the object is a person or a book rather than a fact. One alleged Augustine, or a passage of Cicero, to bring an authority into an argument on one side or the other. The meaning comes from Old French alleguer and Latin allēgāre, not from the courtroom form behind the sworn-statement sense. The sense is archaic now, and in modern prose cite or quote does its work.
- 4To make something lighter or less in amount or strength.
and suffir never your soveraynté to be alledged with your subjects,
1470, Thomas Malory, Le Morte DarthurSimilarlighten, alleviate, lessen
Note
A different word that only shares the spelling. It came into Middle English as alleggen, through Old French alegier, from Latin alleviāre, "to lighten", which is built on levis, "light". That makes it a doublet of alleviate. Malory warns against letting sovereignty be "alledged" among subjects, and Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590) speaks of a hope that "may allegge his smart". In older verse, do not mistake it for the "claim" meaning.
Less common meaning
- 5To declare something formally under oath, or to plead a matter before a court.
Note
A word of the courtroom, and its form may record that origin. Middle English aleggen perhaps goes back through Old French esligier, "to acquit", to a Medieval Latin *exlītigāre, "to clear at law". The sense is obsolete, and an oath or a plea stood behind every statement it named. Modern readers should not carry that sworn weight into the "unproven claim" meaning, which marks an assertion as untested.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English "aleggen," perhaps from Old French "alleguer" or Anglo-Norman "aleger." The form may go back through Old French "esligier" ("to acquit") to Medieval Latin "*exlītigāre" ("to clear at law"), from Latin "ex" ("out") plus "lītigō" ("sue at law"). The meaning, however, comes from Old French "alleguer," from Latin "allēgāre" ("to relate, mention, adduce"), from "ad" ("to") plus "lēgō" ("send").
From Middle English "alleggen," from Old French "alegier," from Latin "alleviāre" ("to lighten"), from "ad" plus "levis" ("light"). It is a doublet of "alleviate."