diff --git a/addrs/parse_ref.go b/addrs/parse_ref.go
index 04c450a009..0798d03cb6 100644
--- a/addrs/parse_ref.go
+++ b/addrs/parse_ref.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 
 	"github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcl"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcl/hclsyntax"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/tfdiags"
 )
 
@@ -173,6 +174,35 @@ func ParseRef(traversal hcl.Traversal) (*Reference, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
 	}
 }
 
+// ParseRefStr is a helper wrapper around ParseRef that takes a string
+// and parses it with the HCL native syntax traversal parser before
+// interpreting it.
+//
+// This should be used only in specialized situations since it will cause the
+// created references to not have any meaningful source location information.
+// If a reference string is coming from a source that should be identified in
+// error messages then the caller should instead parse it directly using a
+// suitable function from the HCL API and pass the traversal itself to
+// ParseRef.
+//
+// Error diagnostics are returned if either the parsing fails or the analysis
+// of the traversal fails. There is no way for the caller to distinguish the
+// two kinds of diagnostics programmatically. If error diagnostics are returned
+// the returned reference may be nil or incomplete.
+func ParseRefStr(str string) (*Reference, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
+	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
+
+	traversal, parseDiags := hclsyntax.ParseTraversalAbs([]byte(str), "", hcl.Pos{Line: 1, Column: 1})
+	diags = diags.Append(parseDiags)
+	if parseDiags.HasErrors() {
+		return nil, diags
+	}
+
+	ref, targetDiags := ParseRef(traversal)
+	diags = diags.Append(targetDiags)
+	return ref, diags
+}
+
 func parseResourceRef(mode ResourceMode, startRange hcl.Range, traversal hcl.Traversal) (*Reference, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
 	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
 
diff --git a/addrs/parse_target.go b/addrs/parse_target.go
index af7bed868b..057443af65 100644
--- a/addrs/parse_target.go
+++ b/addrs/parse_target.go
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ package addrs
 import (
 	"fmt"
 
+	"github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcl/hclsyntax"
+
 	"github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcl"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/tfdiags"
 )
@@ -138,6 +140,35 @@ func ParseTarget(traversal hcl.Traversal) (*Target, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
 	}, diags
 }
 
+// ParseTargetStr is a helper wrapper around ParseTarget that takes a string
+// and parses it with the HCL native syntax traversal parser before
+// interpreting it.
+//
+// This should be used only in specialized situations since it will cause the
+// created references to not have any meaningful source location information.
+// If a target string is coming from a source that should be identified in
+// error messages then the caller should instead parse it directly using a
+// suitable function from the HCL API and pass the traversal itself to
+// ParseTarget.
+//
+// Error diagnostics are returned if either the parsing fails or the analysis
+// of the traversal fails. There is no way for the caller to distinguish the
+// two kinds of diagnostics programmatically. If error diagnostics are returned
+// the returned target may be nil or incomplete.
+func ParseTargetStr(str string) (*Target, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
+	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
+
+	traversal, parseDiags := hclsyntax.ParseTraversalAbs([]byte(str), "", hcl.Pos{Line: 1, Column: 1})
+	diags = diags.Append(parseDiags)
+	if parseDiags.HasErrors() {
+		return nil, diags
+	}
+
+	target, targetDiags := ParseTarget(traversal)
+	diags = diags.Append(targetDiags)
+	return target, diags
+}
+
 // ParseAbsResource attempts to interpret the given traversal as an absolute
 // resource address, using the same syntax as expected by ParseTarget.
 //
@@ -190,6 +221,32 @@ func ParseAbsResource(traversal hcl.Traversal) (AbsResource, tfdiags.Diagnostics
 	}
 }
 
+// ParseAbsResourceStr is a helper wrapper around ParseAbsResource that takes a
+// string and parses it with the HCL native syntax traversal parser before
+// interpreting it.
+//
+// Error diagnostics are returned if either the parsing fails or the analysis
+// of the traversal fails. There is no way for the caller to distinguish the
+// two kinds of diagnostics programmatically. If error diagnostics are returned
+// the returned address may be incomplete.
+//
+// Since this function has no context about the source of the given string,
+// any returned diagnostics will not have meaningful source location
+// information.
+func ParseAbsResourceStr(str string) (AbsResource, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
+	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
+
+	traversal, parseDiags := hclsyntax.ParseTraversalAbs([]byte(str), "", hcl.Pos{Line: 1, Column: 1})
+	diags = diags.Append(parseDiags)
+	if parseDiags.HasErrors() {
+		return AbsResource{}, diags
+	}
+
+	addr, addrDiags := ParseAbsResource(traversal)
+	diags = diags.Append(addrDiags)
+	return addr, diags
+}
+
 // ParseAbsResourceInstance attempts to interpret the given traversal as an
 // absolute resource instance address, using the same syntax as expected by
 // ParseTarget.
@@ -233,3 +290,29 @@ func ParseAbsResourceInstance(traversal hcl.Traversal) (AbsResourceInstance, tfd
 
 	}
 }
+
+// ParseAbsResourceInstanceStr is a helper wrapper around
+// ParseAbsResourceInstance that takes a string and parses it with the HCL
+// native syntax traversal parser before interpreting it.
+//
+// Error diagnostics are returned if either the parsing fails or the analysis
+// of the traversal fails. There is no way for the caller to distinguish the
+// two kinds of diagnostics programmatically. If error diagnostics are returned
+// the returned address may be incomplete.
+//
+// Since this function has no context about the source of the given string,
+// any returned diagnostics will not have meaningful source location
+// information.
+func ParseAbsResourceInstanceStr(str string) (AbsResourceInstance, tfdiags.Diagnostics) {
+	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
+
+	traversal, parseDiags := hclsyntax.ParseTraversalAbs([]byte(str), "", hcl.Pos{Line: 1, Column: 1})
+	diags = diags.Append(parseDiags)
+	if parseDiags.HasErrors() {
+		return AbsResourceInstance{}, diags
+	}
+
+	addr, addrDiags := ParseAbsResourceInstance(traversal)
+	diags = diags.Append(addrDiags)
+	return addr, diags
+}