parolaombrello

Parolaombrello is a coinage used in Italian linguistics to describe an umbrella word—a single lexical item that serves as a broad label for a set of related concepts. The term blends parola (word) and ombrello (umbrella) to signal its function as a cover term that encompasses several subordinate terms. Although not standardized in formal dictionaries, the concept appears in scholarly and semi-academic writing as a convenient label in discussions of semantics, taxonomy, and lexicography.

In usage, a parolaombrello acts as the highest-level category under which more specific terms are organized. For example, in a taxonomic list, "luogo" (place) can function as a parolaombrello for "città," "paese," "villaggio," and "luogo di interesse"—each of which is a more precise term within the broader category. The term helps describe how languages classify hierarchical vocabularies, and it is sometimes employed in digital tagging, metadata design, and content classification.

Relation to other concepts: the idea is closely aligned with the English term umbrella term or hypernym. Proponents view parolaombrello as a useful shorthand for discussing generic categories, while critics caution that umbrella terms can reduce specificity and risk conflation of distinct subcategories.

See also: umbrella term; hypernym; taxonomy; lexicography.