From paraballo; a similitude ("parable"), i.e. (symbolic) fictitious narrative (of common life conveying a moral), apothegm or adage -- comparison, figure, parable, proverb.

see GREEK paraballo

1. a placing of one thing by the side of another, juxtaposition, as of ships in battle, Polybius 15, 2, 13; Diodorus 14, 60.

2. metaphorically, a comparing, comparison of one thing with another, likeness, similitude (Plato, Isocrates, Polybius, Plutarch): universally, Matthew 24:32; Mark 13:28; an example by which a doctrine or precept is illustrated, Mark 3:23; Luke 14:7; a thing serving as a figure of something else, Hebrews 9:9; this meaning also very many interpreters give the word in Hebrews 11:19, but see 5 below; specifically, "a narrative, fictitious but agreeable to the laws and usages of human life, by which either the duties of men or the things of God, particularly the nature and history of God's kingdom, are figuratively portrayed" (cf. B. D., see under the words, Fable, Parable (and references there; add Aristotle, rhet. 2, 20, 2ff and Cope's notes)): Matthew 13:3, 10, 13, 24, 31, 33-35, 53; Matthew 21:33, 45; (); Mark 4:2, 10,(),f; (); ,(); Luke 8:4, 9-11; Luke 12:16, 41; Luke 13:6; Luke 14:7; Luke 15:3; Luke 18:1, 9; Luke 19:11; Luke 20:9, 19; Luke 21:29; with a genitive of the person or thing to which the contents of the parable refer (Winer's Grammar, § 30, 1 a.): τοῦ σπείροντος, Matthew 13:18; τῶν ζιζανίων, Matthew 13:36; τήν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν παραβολή τιθέναι (literally, to set forth the kingdom of God in a parable), to illustrate (the nature and history of) the kingdom of God by the use of a parable, Mark 4:30 L text T Tr text WH.

3. "a pithy and instructive saying, involving some likeness or comparison and having preceptive or admonitory force; an aphorism, a maxim": Luke 5:36; Luke 6:39; Matthew 15:15 (Proverbs 1:6; Ecclesiastes 1:17; Sir. 3:29(27); (25), etc.). Since sayings of this kind often pass into proverbs, παραβολή is

4. a proverb: Luke 4:23 (1 Samuel 10:12; Ezekiel 12:22; Ezekiel 18:2f).

5. an act by which one exposes himself or his possessions to danger, a venture, risk (in which sense the plural seems to be used by Plutarch, Aratus 22: διά πολλῶν ἑλιγμων καί παραβολῶν περαινοντες πρός τό τεῖχος (cf. Diodorus Siculus fragment book 30:9, 2; also variant in Thucydides 1, 131, 2 (and Poppo at the passage))); ἐν παραβολή, in risking him, i. e. at the very moment when he exposed his son to mortal peril (see παραβολεύομαι), Hebrews 11:19 (Hesychius ἐκ παραβολῆς. ἐκ παρακινδυνευματος); others with less probability explain it, in a figure, i. e. as a figure, either of the future general resurrection of all men, or of Christ offered up to God and raised again from the dead; others otherwise.