Synecdoche
- “what is synecdoche”
- “how do you pronounce synecdoche”
- “synecdoche vs metonymy”
- “synecdoche examples”
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SynecdochevsMetonymy
The short answer
Synecdoche substitutes a part for a whole or a whole for a part — the two things are the same thing at different scales. Metonymy substitutes something merely associated — a crown is not part of a monarch. That is the cleanest available line, and rhetoricians have argued about it for two thousand years anyway.
Side by side
| Aspect | Synecdoche | Metonymy |
|---|---|---|
| Relation | Part/whole | Association |
| Same entity | Yes | No |
| 'All hands' | This one | — |
| 'The White House said' | — | This one |
| 'The crown' | — | This one |
Which one you meant
Readers who land here meaning Synecdoche rather than Metonymy are usually searching for phrases like “what is synecdoche”, “how do you pronounce synecdoche”, “synecdoche vs metonymy”.
Metonymy
- “what is metonymy”
- “metonymy vs synecdoche”
- “metonymy examples”
- “how do you pronounce metonymy”
Where the confusion comes from
“Synecdoche and metonymy are clearly distinguished terms with an agreed boundary.”
The boundary is genuinely disputed and always has been. Some rhetoricians treat synecdoche as a species of metonymy; others hold them separate; a classical strand, Quintilian's, collapses both into metaphor. Handbooks contradict each other, and the contradiction is old rather than sloppy. If two well-read people disagree about whether 'the crown' is synecdoche or metonymy, they are re-enacting a live classical argument, not making a mistake.
Read either one in full