synecdoche

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.

The situation was a perfect synecdoche for Hegseth’s self-inflicted Sispyphean task of trying to be a big man.

From Salon • Mar. 13, 2026

The near-perfect overlay of the religious image with a political image is a visual synecdoche for the Revolution’s replacement of Christianity with the cults of Nature and Reason.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 21, 2025

In Mangold’s hands, parts become wholes and the exhibition a master class in synecdoche: the tree is the forest; the painter a human representative negotiating with the natural world.

From New York Times • Jun. 1, 2023

In Darlington’s Devon neighborhood, the synecdoche for global habitat destruction is the arrival of a sign in a soon-to-be-former farm field: “Site Acquired for Development.”

From Washington Post • Feb. 6, 2023

But when we said "speech," we intended to employ a synecdoche, and that "expression" generically, should be understood, for expression is not only so-called verbal expression, as we have already noted.

From Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic by Croce, Benedetto