Definition & Meaning of "meronymy"

What is "meronymy"?

Meronymy is a linguistic relationship in which a word denotes a part or a component of a larger whole. In this relationship, the part is called the meronym, and the whole is known as the holonym. In this relationship, a meronym is a word that denotes a part of something, while the whole is called the holonym. For example, in the pair "wheel" and "car," "wheel" is a meronym because it is a part of the whole "car." Meronymy helps to illustrate how different words relate to each other by showing how smaller components contribute to larger entities. This relationship is important for understanding language structure and how meaning is conveyed through parts and wholes in communication.