metonym

Noun

metonym (plural metonyms)

1. A word that names an object from a single characteristic of it or of a closely related object; a word used in metonymy.
   • Calling a government a "city hall" is using a metonym.
   • ...to say that "New York was thrown into a state of great excitement," when we mean the inhabitants of New York, is technically to use the metonym of putting "the container for the thing contained."1891 September, William Minto, “Practical talks on writing English”, in Theodor Flood, editor, The Chautauquan, volume 13, →OCLC, pages 279–280
2. (broadly) A concept, idea, or word used to represent, typify, or stand in for a broader set of ideas.
   • See also: symbol, model, microcosm, archetype, exemplar, proxy
   • Chapter 1, using the railway as a metonym, explored the relationship between past and present, and argued that diachronic, or historical, time was dissolved in the proliferation of present moments, or synchronic time.2011, Geraldine Lawless, Modernity's Metonyms: Figuring Time in Nineteenth-century Spanish Stories, Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, →ISBN, page 155