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metonym

/ˈmɛ.tə.nɪm/noun

metonym is a noun meaning “A word that names an object from a single characteristic of it or of a closely related object; a word used in metonymy” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-E-T-O-N-Y-M, and it appears about once in every 43 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of metonym is metonyms.

What does metonym mean?

noun

  1. 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.

  2. 2

    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

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce metonym?

  • /ˈmɛ.tə.nɪm/

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-metonym.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of metonym

  • metonyms plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is metonym?

Metonym appears about once in every 43 million words in written English, the 201,693rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Words people confuse with metonym

Sounds like: metanym (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Metonym in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense word that names an object from a single characteristic of it:

LanguageWords
Frenchmétonyme
GermanMetonym
Portuguesemetônimo, metonímia
Spanishmetónimo

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does metonym come from?

Back-formation from metonymy.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).