metonym

noun

1. 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 a "city hall" is using a metonym.”

   “...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."”

   “She not only outlines the devastating effects of seferberlik but also highlights the changing meaning of this term - as it acquired a civilian dimension in its Arabic rendition (safar barlik) - and its potency as a metonym for the war as a whole.”

2. (broadly)A concept, idea, or word used to represent, typify, or stand in for a broader set of ideas.

   “See also: symbol, model, microcosm, archetype, exemplar, proxy”

   “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.”