ELUDE
What does "ELUDE" mean?
To escape or avoid capture, detection, or understanding, especially by cleverness.
Meanings
- To evade or escape from someone or something pursuing you. The fox eluded the hounds by doubling back through the stream.
- To fail to be grasped, achieved, or remembered by someone. The right word eluded her all afternoon.
Did you know?
- Elude is built on the Latin verb 'ludere', to play - the same root behind 'illusion' and 'ludicrous' - so to elude a pursuer is literally to play your way out of reach.
Word origin
From Latin 'eludere' (to escape from, make a fool of), from 'e-' (out, away) plus 'ludere' (to play); the same root for play gives 'illusion', 'allude', and 'ludicrous'.
Remember it
Don't confuse ELUDE (escape) with ALLUDE (hint): you e-LUDE the police but al-LUDE to a secret.
A little poem
The answer hovered just beyond my reach-
a fish that slips the net it came to teach.
couplet
Wordplay
- The thief tried to elude the detective and the detective tried to allude to the thief's mistake - one ran, one hinted, and the words ran circles around them both.
What it teaches
What you chase too directly tends to flee; some truths are won only by patience.
Quick facts
What does ELUDE mean?
To escape or avoid capture, detection, or understanding, especially by cleverness.
Is ELUDE a valid word?
Yes — ELUDE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is ELUDE?
ELUDE has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does ELUDE come from?
From Latin 'eludere' (to escape from, make a fool of), from 'e-' (out, away) plus 'ludere' (to play); the same root for play gives 'illusion', 'allude', and 'ludicrous'.
What can ELUDE teach us?
What you chase too directly tends to flee; some truths are won only by patience.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.