Hyponymiehyponymy

Hyponymiehyponymy is a cross-linguistic framing of the semantic relation known in English as hyponymy and in French as hyponymie. In this perspective, hyponymy describes a hierarchical relation between terms where the extension of one term is included in the extension of another. The more specific term is called a hyponym; the more general term is called a hypernym. For example, rose is a hyponym of flower, and dog is a hyponym of animal.

Hyponymy is transitive: if A is a hyponym of B and B is a hyponym of C, then A is a hyponym of C. This relation is a key component of lexical semantics and is frequently modeled in lexical databases such as WordNet, where it is expressed through is-a links that connect more specific concepts to more general ones. The term is distinct from other semantic relations, such as meronymy (part-whole) and synonymy (interchangeable meaning).

In practice, hyponymy underpins how dictionaries, thesauri, and ontologies organize vocabulary. It supports inference from specific terms to broader categories and assists natural language processing tasks that require hierarchical understanding of meaning. Hyponymy can vary in granularity across languages and domains, reflecting differences in how speakers carve up the world.

The label hyponymiehyponymy highlights the bilingual aspect of the concept, uniting the English term hyponymy with the French hyponymie. The underlying relation remains the same: a structured, directional link where a hyponym denotes a more specific member of a broader hypernym.