German

Noun

Metonym n ‎(genitive Metonymes or Metonyms, plural Metonyme or Metonyma)

1. (grammar) metonym

Declension

Related terms

• metonym
• metonymisch
• Metonymie

English

Noun

metonym ‎(plural metonyms)

1. (grammar) A word that names an object from a single characteristic of it or of a closely related object; a word used in metonymy.

   Calling a government "city hall" is using a metonym.

   • 1891 September 1, William Minto, “Practical talks on writing English”, in Theodor Flood, editor, The Chautauquan, volume 13, OCLC 752442901, pages 279–280:

     ...to say that "New York was thrown into a state of great excitement," when we mean the inhabitants of New York, is technically to use the metonym of putting "the container for the thing contained."

2. (by extension) A concept, idea, or word used to represent, typify, or stand in for a broader set of ideas.
   • 2011, Geraldine Lawless, Modernity's Metonyms: Figuring Time in Nineteenth-century Spanish Stories, Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, ISBN 1611480477, page 155:

     Chapter 1, using the railway as a metonym, explored the relationship between past and present, and argued that diachronic, or historical, time was dissolved in the proliferation of present moments, or synchronic time.

Hyponyms

• synecdoche

See also

• demonym

Translations

See also

• metanym

Danish

Etymology

Back-formation from metonymi.

Noun

metonym n (singular definite metonymet, plural indefinite metonymer)

1. (grammar) metonym

Inflection