synecdoche

English

WOTD – 26 September 2006

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin synecdoche, from Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή (sunekdokhḗ, “receiving together”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sɪˈnɛk.də.ki/, /sɪˈnɛk.doʊ.ki/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

synecdoche (countable and uncountable, plural synecdoches)

Examples

fifty head of cattle — part (head) for whole (animal).
a fleet of ships, fifty sail deep — part (sail) for whole (ship)
the police knocked down my door — whole (the police) for part (some police officers)
the cat stalks the gazelle — class (cat) for subclass (e.g., cheetah)
hand me a Kleenex — subclass (brand named product) for class (all similar products)
China maintains closer high-level ties with Pyongyang — country (China) for its government (Chinese government) and capital (Pyongyang) for its country (North Korea)

  1. (rhetoric) A figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole.
    • 2002, Christopher Hitchens, "Martin Amis: Lightness at Midnight", The Atlantic, Sep 2002:
      "Holocaust" can become a tired synecdoche for war crimes in general.
  2. (rhetoric) The use of this figure of speech; synecdochy.

Synonyms

  • (part for the whole): pars pro toto
  • (whole for the part): totum pro parte

Hypernyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin synecdoche, from Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή (sunekdokhḗ, “receiving together”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sinɛkˈdoːxə/
  • Audio(file)

Noun

synecdoche f (plural synecdoches, diminutive synecdochetje n)

  1. (literature) synecdoche

See also

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