hyponymy

American

[hahy-pon-uh-mee] / haɪˈpɒn ə mi /

noun

Linguistics.

the state or quality of being a hyponym, a term that denotes a subcategory of a more general class.

A relationship of hyponymy exists between “dog” and “animal.”

1950–55; hyp- + -onymy ( see -onym, -y ³), on the model of homonymy, synonymy

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023