metonymical

1 9.1

Using one thing's name to mean something closely connected, like 'the crown' for the king

adjective
/məˈtɪnɪkəl/

Literature

: metonímico

The phrase 'Hollywood' is often used in a metonymical way to refer to the American film industry rather than just the geographic location.
metaphorical and metonymical
metonymical extension

Examples

In literature, a metonymical reference can create deeper connections between concepts by using one term to signify another closely related idea.
Equality, whether real or metonymical in the serious plays, would seem to satisfy rules of internal logic.

Academic text (2000)
Second, it recognizes that this relation functions on a basic mechanism of metonymical or synecdochal association.

Academic text (2003)
As mediators of human fate and agents of divinity, they serve metonymical roles, proximal to human society, causal to human outcomes.

Academic text (1998)
The self-conscious orchestration of several levels of communication in Terra Nostra relies on basic organizing and structural principles of metonymical and synecdochical association.

Academic text (2003)
In the Maasai case, the identity of initiates and birds is, as it were, metonymical rather than metaphorical, based as it is on a pragmatic association between the two established through various ritualized practices that follow initiation.

Academic text (1998)
Using a metonymical expression like 'the White House announced a policy' shows how a place can represent its occupants or the government itself.

Synonyms

metonymic

vsmetonymical

Literature

1 9.2

Using the name of one thing to mean something closely connected

is the same idea expressed with a different adjectival form

metonymous

vsmetonymical

Literature

1 9.6

Using the name of something closely related to mean something else, like 'the White House' for the president

uses the same substitution but may be a different stylistic variant

Surface Forms

metonymical positive

Morphology

metonymical = metonym (transparent) = metonym + ical

The transformation from 'metonym' to 'metonymical' is straightforward, indicating a characteristic of or relating to a metonym.

Etymology

The word metonymical comes from the Greek parts meta- meaning 'change' and onoma meaning 'name'. It describes using one name for something closely connected to it, like saying 'the White House' for the president, so you can remember it as using a different name to stand for something else.