Synedoche

Have you ever eaten a slice of pizza and referred to it as "a piece"? Congratulations, you've just used synecdoche - a powerful literary device that helps to paint vivid images with just a few words. But did you know that synecdoche is much more than just a figure of speech? This may sound strange, but synecdoche can be a useful shorthand way of getting a point across, and it is more common than you may think.

Synecdoche meaning

Synecdoche is a type of figurative language or a figure of speech, that refers to a thing by either the name of something that is part of it or by the name of something that it is part of. In other words, it is a part that refers to the whole, or a whole that refers to the part.

Synecdoche examples

In this section, we'll look at examples of synecdoche. We have split these into two sections; synecdoche as a part that refers to the whole, and synecdoche as a whole that refers to the part.

A part that refers to the whole

If somebody were to pull up in a new car and say, "Check out my new wheels", it is unlikely that you would start inspecting the tires - you would probably understand the phrase as, "Check out my new car". They have just mentioned a part (“wheels”) to refer to the whole (the car).

There are quite a few common phrases that use synecdoche in this way - for example, "I've got mouths to feed". Nobody has disembodied mouths floating around on their own that need feeding (we hope!), And so we understand this phrase as “I've got people to feed”; mouths are a part of people. By drawing attention to this particular body part, you are emphasizing that the people need feeding.

Ever heard the phrase “all hands on deck”? Here the word “hands” refers to people - as hands are also a part of people. In this case, you are drawing attention to the hands because you are most likely calling for these people to help with manual work.

If you were to see a man with a moustache walking down the street and yell, “Hey, moustache!” he would know that you were talking to him, not the moustache (disclaimer: please don't try this with any strangers!). The moustache is a part of him because it's attached to his face.

Fig. 1 - "Hey Moustache!"

“Bar” is another common synecdoche, as in, “We had a few drinks in a bar”. Once again, the part (the “bar”, where staff serve drinks) refers to the whole (the entire pub or club).

We often refer to objects by the name of something that they are physically made of; Examples of this include a "glass" that you drink from, or "plastic" in reference to a credit or debit card. These terms are classed as synecdoche, as once again the part (an element that it is made of) refers to the whole (the complete object).

In all of these examples, we are referring to a thing (such an object or a person) by the name of something that is a part of it. You can think of this type of synecdoche as zooming in on a particular detail of a thing.

The whole that refers to the part

Let's say a parent speaks to their child and tells them, “I've had a word with your school”; we understand this as meaning, “I've had a word with the teachers at your school ”. The school is a whole that contains the teachers.

Are you starting to get the picture? You can think of this type of synecdoche as zooming out to reveal the whole that a thing is a part of.

An extremely common use of this type of synecdoche is using the name of a place (such as a country or city) to represent a group of people or an industry that is based there. One example of this is the term “Hollywood”, meaning the mainstream movie industry. As many major studios are based in Hollywood, California, you could say, "I hope to make it in Hollywood" and we would assume that you are trying to become a movie star.

In any international sports match, people refer to each team by the name of the country they represent, for example: “Germany is playing Italy”. What this means is, "The German football team is playing the Italian football team".

Other examples include:

• “Broadway” or “The West End” to mean mainstream theater (as in, “She's a Broadway star”, or “It was a West End flop”).
• “Downing Street” to mean the UK Prime Minister and staff (as in, “Downing Street announces latest budget”).
• “The White House” to mean the US president and staff (as in, “The White House releases details of climate initiative”).

Fig. 2 - Synecdoche occurs everywhere you look!

Examples of synecdoche: a recap

Hopefully, these examples have given you a good idea of how synecdoche works. See below for a quick reference guide to the examples we've discussed.

Part that refers to the whole ("Zooming in")

Whole that refers to the part ("Zooming out")

Synecdoche vs metonymy - what's the difference?

We have established that synecdoche is a part that refers to the whole, or a whole that refers to the part. Metonymy works in a similar way, but the key difference is this: it refers to a thing by the name of something associated with it. That thing is not a physical part of it, nor is it something that contains the thing; it is something closely associated with the thing.

Earlier we looked at an example of synecdoche to describe a car: “Check out my new wheels ”. If we wanted to turn this into an example of metonymy, we could say, “Check out my new ride”. Why is this metonymy? Because the word that refers to the car, “ride”, is not a physical part of the car like “wheels” are; it is a word associated with cars.

Confusingly, some people class synecdoche as a type of metonymy; for the sake of clarity, we are classing synecdoche and metonymy as two separate things. We recommend speaking to your tutor about their opinion on this.

If you need any more information, see our article on metonymy.