synecdoche

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
21
Words With Friends
22
Letters
10
Pronunciation
/sɪˈnɛk.də.ki/
See all 2 pronunciations
/sɪˈnɛk.də.ki/ · /sɪˈnɛk.doʊ.ki/

Definition of synecdoche

2 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (countable, rhetoric, uncountable)A figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole, or the whole to represent a part, or a specific kind or instance to represent the general category, or the general category to represent a specific kind or instance, or the constituent material to represent the thing made from it.
    “Synecdoche the whole for part will take, Or part for whole, just for the metre's sake.”
    “"Holocaust" can become a tired synecdoche for war crimes in general.”
    “Perhaps being in a touring band was, to Yorke, a synecdoche for the modern condition: disorientation, alienation, rootlessness, exhaustion, lack of control, occasional derangement, constant motion.”
See all 2 definitions

noun

  1. (countable, rhetoric, uncountable)A figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole, or the whole to represent a part, or a specific kind or instance to represent the general category, or the general category to represent a specific kind or instance, or the constituent material to represent the thing made from it.
    “Synecdoche the whole for part will take, Or part for whole, just for the metre's sake.”
    “"Holocaust" can become a tired synecdoche for war crimes in general.”
    “Perhaps being in a touring band was, to Yorke, a synecdoche for the modern condition: disorientation, alienation, rootlessness, exhaustion, lack of control, occasional derangement, constant motion.”
  2. (countable, rhetoric, uncountable)The use of this figure of speech.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin synecdochē, from Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή (sunekdokhḗ, “receiving together”) from σύν (sún, “with”) + ἐκ (ek, “out of”) + δέχεσθαι (dékhesthai, “to accept”), this last element related to δοκέω (dokéō, “to think, suppose, seem”).

Words you can make from synecdoche

200+ playable · top: SYNCHED (16 pts)

Best play synched 16 points

8-letter words

2 words

7-letter words

10 words

6-letter words

24 words

5-letter words

61 words

4-letter words

80 words

3-letter words

22 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to synecdoche to make another valid word.

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