Synecdoche
[sə-NEK-də-kee]
Part of speech: noun
Origin: Late Middle English, 1350s
1.
A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa.
Examples of Synecdoche in a sentence
"The team's full name is the Jacksonville Jaguars, but they are often referred to by the synecdoche 'Jaguars.'"
"The tourism campaign was pushing for 'Maple Town' to be the synecdoche for the village known for its maple syrup festival."
About Synecdoche
While synecdoche became used through Late Middle English, it originated from the Greek word "sunekdokhē" — a combination of the words "sun" ("together") and "ekdekhesthai" ("to take up").
Did you Know?
Despite the complicated spelling and pronunciation of the word "synecdoche" (suh-NEK-duh-kee), you likely use this type of figure of speech every day. If your favorite sports team is the Oakland Athletics baseball team and you call them the "A's," that's synecdoche. Referring to the United States as "America" or saying a statement has been put out by the company when it was actually a single spokesperson are both examples of synecdoche. To clarify, anytime you use a simplified term as a part to represent a whole, or vice versa, that's synecdoche.
