merismus
/məˈɹɪzməs/
merismus noun: a metonymic term to describe a type of synecdoche in which two parts of a thing, perhaps contrasting or complementary parts, are made to stand for the whole.
Noun
merismus
- A metonymic term to describe a type of synecdoche in which two parts of a thing, perhaps contrasting or complementary parts, are made to stand for the whole.
Origin of merismus
From Ancient Greek μερισμός (merismós, “a dividing”), derived from the Ancient Greek verb μερίζω (merízō, “to divide into parts”).
Questions about merismus
- What does merismus mean?
- Merismus means a metonymic term to describe a type of synecdoche in which two parts of a thing, perhaps contrasting or complementary parts, are made to stand for the whole.
- What part of speech is merismus?
- Merismus is a noun.
- How do you pronounce merismus?
- Merismus is pronounced /məˈɹɪzməs/.
Words near merismus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: merismus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “merismus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/merismus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.