METONYMS (METONYMY)

NY Times Crossword

March 19, 2022

Jamey Smith (#1-6)

 

A metonym is a word or name used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated. For example, Washington is a metonym for the federal government of the United States. A famous example of metonymy is,  "The pen is mightier than the sword." - from Edward Bulwer Lytton's play, Cardinal Richelieu. This sentence has two metonyms: "Pen" stands for the written word, and "Sword" stands for military aggression. Metonyms are often geography-based - like Washington in the example above. Another example would be Detroit as a metonym for American car manufacturing.

 

Can you think of a metonym for the following:

 

1. King or Queen 

2. Department of Defense

3. President of the United States

4. Movie industry

5. High-tech industry

6. Advertising industry

7. Cars

8. Clothes

9. Hindsight

10. Schools like Harvard and Yale

Answers:

 

1. Crown

2. Pentagon

3. White House or Oval Office

4. Hollywood

5. Silicon Valley

6. Madison Avenue

7. Wheels

8. Threads

9. Rear-view mirror

10. Ivy League

 

NOTE: Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole thing. A classic example of synecdoche is the use of the word hands to mean "workers" - as in "all hands on deck." Synecdoche and metonymy are very similar.