HYPONYM

HYPONYM, also subordinate term. A WORD, PHRASE, or LEXEME of narrower or more specific meaning that comes ‘under’ another of wider or more general meaning: for example, rose under flower (‘a rose is a kind of flower’, ‘flowers include roses and tulips’). In this relationship, the word flower is a hyperonym, generic term, or superordinate term. Many hyponyms belong in groups, such as carpet, chair, desk, table, rug, stool, all of which are co-hyponyms of the hyperonym furniture (‘a carpet is an item of furniture’). Hyponymic relations are often imprecise, unstable, and multidimensional, depending on both context and how relationships are analysed. The same word may be a hyponym of several superordinates: axe as ‘kind of tool’ and ‘kind of weapon’; weapon also a hyponym of tool (‘a weapon is a kind of tool’). Battle-axe is ‘a kind of axe’ and ‘a kind of weapon’, but is unlikely to appear under axe in the SENSE of ‘a kind of tool’. Rug is in some contexts a synonym of carpet (‘The cat sat on the rug/carpet’), in others a hyponym of carpet (‘a rug is a kind of carpet’). See -ONYM, SEMANTICS.