synecdoche

American  

[si-nek-duh-kee] / sɪˈnɛk də ki /

noun

Rhetoric.

1. a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships or a Croesus for a rich man.

---

synecdoche British  

/ sɪnˈɛkdəkɪ, ˌsɪnɛkˈdɒkɪk /

noun

1. a figure of speech in which a part is substituted for a whole or a whole for a part, as in 50 head of cattle for 50 cows, or the army for a soldier

---

Other Word Forms

• synecdochic
  adjective
• synecdochical
  adjective
• synecdochically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of synecdoche

1350–1400; < Medieval Latin < Greek synekdochḗ, equivalent to syn- syn- + ekdochḗ act of receiving from another, equivalent to ek- ec- + -dochē, noun derivative of déchesthai to receive

Compare meaning

How does synecdoche compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• metonymy vs. synecdoche

Explanation

Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which you use a part of something to stand for the whole thing. If your parents buy you a car and you say that you just got a new set of wheels, you're using synecdoche — you're using the wheels, which are part of a car, to refer to the whole car. To correctly pronounce synecdoche, say "sih-NECK-duh-key." A synecdoche is a part that represents the whole. A photograph of a car that is completely covered in snow is a synecdoche for the burden everyone faces following a big winter storm. Synecdoche is a great literary device, especially for poets who strive to express a great deal in a single image.

Example Sentences

But it lured two million fair visitors, and, as we see, inspired children’s toys and books, before becoming a synecdoche for Paris itself.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 14, 2026

Some of the sentences that adorn them are barely legible because of the fabric’s creases, but one of them, a quote from a playbill interview with Castellucci, describes Huppert as “the synecdoche of theater.”

From New York Times • Mar. 6, 2024

In Darlington’s Devon neighborhood, the synecdoche for global habitat destruction is the arrival of a sign in a soon-to-be-former farm field: “Site Acquired for Development.”

From Washington Post • Feb. 6, 2023

Baseball is practically a synecdoche for summer—the season of shared, relaxing stillness in the sun.

From Slate • May 22, 2020

Alwyn could now no longer bind himself down to machine-made synecdoche, antithesis, and climax, being full of spontaneous specimens of all these rhetorical forms, which he dared not utter. 

From A Group of Noble Dames by Hardy, Thomas