English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin synecdochē, from Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή (sunekdokhḗ, receiving together) from σύν (sún, with) + ἐκ (ek, out of) + δέχεσθαι (dékhesthai, to accept), this last element related to δοκέω (dokéō, to think, suppose, seem).

Pronunciation edit

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

Noun edit

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)
  • 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)

synecdoche (countable and uncountable, plural synecdoches)

  1. (rhetoric) A figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole, or the whole to represent a part.
    Hypernym: metonymy
    Hyponyms: pars pro toto, totum pro parte
    • 1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, [], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 9:
      Synecdoche the whole for part will take,
      Or part for whole, just for the metre's sake.
    • 2002 Sep, Christopher Hitchens, “Martin Amis: Lightness at Midnight”, in The Atlantic:
      "Holocaust" can become a tired synecdoche for war crimes in general.
    • 2017 May 17, Dorian Lynskey, “The 20-year-old black mirror that reflects the world today”, in BBC.com Culture[1]:
      Perhaps being in a touring band was, to Yorke, a synecdoche for the modern condition: disorientation, alienation, rootlessness, exhaustion, lack of control, occasional derangement, constant motion.
  2. (rhetoric) The use of this figure of speech.
    Synonym: synecdochy

Usage notes edit

Technically, a synecdoche is a part of the referent while a metonym is connected or associated but not necessarily a part of it.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

See also edit

Further reading edit

Dutch edit

Etymology edit

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

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

synecdoche f (plural synecdoches, diminutive synecdochetje n)

  1. (literature) synecdoche

See also edit