Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of exemplumIn 2013, the Italian playwright Stefano Massini turned this exemplum into The Lehman Trilogy, an epic five-hour play that was adapted and condensed last year by the director Sam Mendes and playwright Ben Power for the National Theatre in London.—
Sarah Churchwell,
The New York Review of Books,
11 June 2019
Mandela’s life and South Africa’s history should never be flattened into a corporate parable.
—
Gerald J. Leonard,
Forbes.com,
22 July 2026
The pair’s mysterious interactions in the early chapters give way to a series of parables of doubt and belief, in which a rational character is confronted by an irrational event—and immediately convinced of its absolute truth.
Likewise, Schoenbrun specializes in zeitgeisty fables about 21st century isolation.
—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
6 Aug. 2026
Here is the rather randy first trailer for Wicker, the comedic fable starring Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård and Peter Dinklage that debuted at Sundance in January.
Netanyahu is not on record as making that remark, but the slogan reflects a broader narrative promoted by Iranian hardliners, portraying women who do not wear the hijab as, at the very least, disloyal to their country.
—
Tim Lister,
CNN Money,
23 Aug. 2026
People hearing those stories—attorneys, reporters, healthcare workers or friends—may expect a clearer, linear narrative.
—
Michele Patterson Ford,
Scientific American,
22 Aug. 2026