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metonymy

[mi-ton-uh-mee] / mɪˈtɒn ə mi /


NOUN
metaphor
Synonyms
Antonyms
WEAK
plain speech


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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The closing credits begin unspooling over an image of a little girl’s shoes catching fire and burning up, a grimly poetic metonymy of the Gallardos’ tragic back story.

From New York Times ● Apr. 3, 2023

It is a metonymy that suggests that the irreducible lives and fates of the dispossessed are not this show’s concern, and certainly haven’t been “recovered” as we were promised at the outset.

From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2021

But there are risks in this kind of metonymy — what writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has called “the danger of a single story.”

From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2018

The Acela metonymy suggests Bloomberg’s basic problem: His appeal is rather selective.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2016

In the line “Lucidity of soul unlocks the lips” are both metonymy and personification.

From Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 10 The Guide by Charles Herbert Sylvester

For a time it seems not so important to classify the metonymies as to make peas or dandelion taste like coffee.

From The Story of a Life by J. Breckenridge (John Breckenridge) Ellis

Rhetoricians give elaborate classifications of metonymies, but they are of little value to the scriptural student, since all are interpreted according to the few simple principles given in the preceding chapter.

From Companion to the Bible by E. P. (Elijah Porter) Barrows


Vocabulary lists containing metonymy

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