hyponym

A more specific term; a subordinate grouping word or phrase; a term designating a subclass of another more general class described by the given word.

Noun

  1. A more specific term; a subordinate grouping word or phrase; a term designating a subclass of another more general class described by the given word.
    • The words “dog”, “cat”, and “horse” are hyponyms of “animal” because dogs, cats, and horses are types of animal.
    • Woman itself has as other hyponyms, sculptress and waitress, but is itself a hyponym of adult. - 1977, Ruth Kempson, Semantic Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 86:

    Synonyms: subordinate

    Antonyms: hypernym hyperonym superordinate

    Coordinate Terms: synonym near-synonym meronym cohyponym more at Wiktionary:Semantic relations

Origin

From hyp- + -onym or hypo- + -nym; from Ancient Greek ὑπό (hupó, “under”) + ὄνυμα (ónuma) ("appellation"), a Doric specific dialectal form of ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”).

Forms

hyponyms

Related

category class kind instance specialization subcategory subdivision subset subtype type is-a

Derived

co-hyponym cohyponym cohyponymous hyponymic hyponymous hyponymy