linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, meronymy () is a semantic relation between a meronym denoting a part and a holonym denoting a whole. In simpler terms, a meronym is in a ''part-of'' relationship with its holonym. For example, ''finger'' is a meronym of ''hand,'' which is its holonym. Similarly, ''engine'' is a meronym of ''car,'' which is its holonym. Fellow meronyms (naming the various fellow parts of any particular whole) are called comeronyms (for example, ''leaves'', ''branches'', ''trunk'', and ''roots'' are comeronyms under the holonym of ''tree''). Holonymy () is the converse of meronymy. A closely related concept is that of

mereology Mereology (; from Greek μέρος 'part' (root: μερε-, ''mere-'') and the suffix ''-logy'', 'study, discussion, science') is the philosophical study of part-whole relationships, also called ''parthood relationships''. As a branch of metaphys ...

, which specifically deals with part–whole relations and is used in

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

. It is formally expressed in terms of

first-order logic First-order logic, also called predicate logic, predicate calculus, or quantificational logic, is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantified variables over ...

. A meronymy can also be considered a

partial order In mathematics, especially order theory, a partial order on a set is an arrangement such that, for certain pairs of elements, one precedes the other. The word ''partial'' is used to indicate that not every pair of elements needs to be comparable ...

. Meronym and holonym refer to ''part'' and ''whole'' respectively, which is not to be confused with

hypernym Hypernymy and hyponymy are the semantic relations between a generic term (''hypernym'') and a more specific term (''hyponym''). The hypernym is also called a ''supertype'', ''umbrella term'', or ''blanket term''. The hyponym names a subtype of ...

which refers to ''type''. For example, a holonym of ''leaf'' might be ''tree'' (a leaf is a part of a tree), whereas a hypernym of ''oak tree'' might be ''tree'' (an oak tree is a type of tree).

References

Semantic relations {{semantics-stub

See also

References