meronym

Etymology

From mero- +‎ -onym, from Ancient Greek μέρος (méros, “part”) + ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛɹənɪm/

Noun

meronym (plural meronyms)

1. (semantics) A term used to denote a thing that is a part of something else.

   "Wheels" is a meronym of the word "automobile".

   • 1998, George A. Miller, “Nouns in WordNet”, in Christiane Fellbaum (editor), Wordnet: An Electronic Lexical Database, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 38,

     If one starts with some complex whole, like {automobile} or {human_body}, it can be broken down into several levels of meronyms, but many of those meronyms will also be meronyms of other wholes. That is to say, some components serve as parts of many different things: think of all the different mechanisms that have gears.

See also

• synecdoche

Noun

meronym c

1. (semantics) meronym