synedoche

Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a term that designates a part of something is used to refer to the whole, or a term that denotes the whole is used to refer to a part. It can also involve a material used to make the thing, or a container used to signify its contents. These uses rely on a recognizable part–whole, material–object, or container–contents relationship rather than on direct resemblance.

Common forms include: part for whole, as in all hands on deck, where hands stands for the sailors who crew the ship; and whole for part, as when a city’s team or government is described simply as the city, implying the people or institutions behind it. A material-for-thing example would be referring to a statue as “bronze” or “marble,” indicating the material rather than the finished object. A container-for-contents instance would be “drinking a bottle” to mean drinking the beverage inside the bottle. Synecdoche can also operate across more abstract lines, such as using a class or category (genus) to stand for a member (species), or a part of a thing to represent the entity as a whole.

Synecdoche is often treated as a specific type of metonymy, though it emphasizes a part–whole relationship. It is widely used in poetry and rhetoric for emphasis, conciseness, or vivid imagery. Classic examples appear in ancient rhetoric and in literature: a speaker asking to “lend me your ears” uses ears to stand for attentive listeners. The device remains common in everyday speech and in literary writing, from Shakespeare to contemporary prose.