hypernym

Etymology

From hyper- (“over”) + -nym (“name”). From Ancient Greek roots; compare Latinate “superordinate term”.

noun

  1. (semantics) A superordinate word or phrase; a term whose referents form a set which includes as a subset the referents of a subordinate term—as, for example, insect being (a hypernym) for ant.
    “Musical instrument” is a hypernym of “guitar” because a guitar is a musical instrument.
    Hypernyms of “dog” and “cat” include “mammal”, “pet”, “carnivore”, and “quadruped”.

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/hypernym), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.