Wednesday 7 October 2009

Hypernyms, hyponyms, eponyms, metonyms, synonyms and antonyms.

A hypernym is a type of thing, such as colour, car, road, etc..

A hyponym is a variant of a type of thing, such as:

Colour: red, yellow, orange, green, blue.
Car: Ford, Honda, Renault, Mercedes, Hyundai.
Road: by-road, highway, motorway, a-road, b-road, lane.

Beware: a word can be a hypernym in one context and a hyponym in another. Blue is a hyponym of colour but is itself a hypernym of different shades of blue, such as cyan, navy, turquoise, aqua-marine, etc..

An eponym is a word named after a person - think of the word eponymous. Einsteinian, the Cook Strait, the Colt and Pasteurisation are all eponyms.

A metonym is a word which describes someone by way of their features. Calling someone a ‘hoodie’ is an example of a metonym.

A synonym is a word which has the same meaning as another, interchangeable word. For example:

Start (verb: intransitive): begin, commence, etc..
Start (noun): beginning, origin, genesis, etc..
Chat (verb: transitive or intransitive): talk, converse, banter, etc..

An antonym is a word which is the opposite of another. Think of hot/cold, start/finish, black/white, etc.. Antonyms can be nouns, verbs, adverbs, or adjectives.

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