noun
- Plural of hyponymy; the semantic relationship in which one word is a more specific instance of another word (e.g., 'dog' is a hyponym of 'animal').
Usage: linguistics; formal
Examples
- The hyponymies between color terms show how 'red' is more specific than 'color'.
- Linguists study hyponymies to understand how vocabulary is organized hierarchically.
- In semantic analysis, hyponymies help explain the relationships between general and specific words.
- The hyponymies in animal classification include 'cat' as a hyponym of 'mammal'.