synecdoche
noun
syn·ec·do·che sə-ˈnek-də-(ˌ)kē 
: a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (such as fifty sail for fifty ships), the whole for a part (such as society for high society), the species for the genus (such as cutthroat for assassin), the genus for the species (such as a creature for a man), or the name of the material for the thing made (such as boards for stage)
synecdochic
ˌsi-ˌnek-ˈdä-kik
adjective synecdochical
ˌsi-ˌnek-ˈdä-ki-kəl
adjective synecdochically
ˌsi-ˌnek-ˈdä-ki-k(ə-)lē
adverb 
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web This freedom was evoked with the Abstract Expressionist brushstrokes of Pollock and Franz Kline, whose art became a synecdoche for unfettered personal expression and for individualism more broadly. 
Jonathon Keats, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2021 The synecdoche soon wore down, however, and other words came into view. Ishion Hutchinson, The New York Review of Books, 19 Nov. 2020 What film choruses offer us is a perfect synecdoche for the collective, frenzied, and deeply mercenary magic that creates movies in the first place. Adrian Daub, Longreads, 3 Sep. 2021 What some might call clear price-gouging tactics by such entities make for a convenient, and politically bipartisan, punching bag as a sort-of synecdoche of the sector's moral failings. Sy Mukherjee, Fortune, 20 May 2021 How four generations of one American family are a synecdoche of the decline of the conservative movement. Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 19 Feb. 2021 But rather than presenting their fate as an ending, Simpson goes beyond rhetorical strategies of synecdoche and metonymy to represent the whole encased in ice. Star Tribune, 12 Feb. 2021 Once these drugs became a synecdoche for the hippie counterculture, and some researchers (including ones at the CIA) did less-than-ethical work, the stigma stuck. Sarah Scoles, Popular Science, 9 Nov. 2020 The figure of Cormery’s domineering grandmother, taking a rawhide switch to the troublemaking boy or up to her elbow in a toilet recovering a two-franc piece, is a synecdoche for the country’s intransigence and desperation. Sam Sacks, WSJ, 16 Nov. 2018 See More
Jonathon Keats, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2021 The synecdoche soon wore down, however, and other words came into view. Ishion Hutchinson, The New York Review of Books, 19 Nov. 2020 What film choruses offer us is a perfect synecdoche for the collective, frenzied, and deeply mercenary magic that creates movies in the first place. Adrian Daub, Longreads, 3 Sep. 2021 What some might call clear price-gouging tactics by such entities make for a convenient, and politically bipartisan, punching bag as a sort-of synecdoche of the sector's moral failings. Sy Mukherjee, Fortune, 20 May 2021 How four generations of one American family are a synecdoche of the decline of the conservative movement. Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 19 Feb. 2021 But rather than presenting their fate as an ending, Simpson goes beyond rhetorical strategies of synecdoche and metonymy to represent the whole encased in ice. Star Tribune, 12 Feb. 2021 Once these drugs became a synecdoche for the hippie counterculture, and some researchers (including ones at the CIA) did less-than-ethical work, the stigma stuck. Sarah Scoles, Popular Science, 9 Nov. 2020 The figure of Cormery’s domineering grandmother, taking a rawhide switch to the troublemaking boy or up to her elbow in a toilet recovering a two-franc piece, is a synecdoche for the country’s intransigence and desperation. Sam Sacks, WSJ, 16 Nov. 2018 See More Word History
Etymology
Latin, from Greek synekdochē, from syn- + ekdochē sense, interpretation, from ekdechesthai to receive, understand, from ex from + dechesthai to receive; akin to Greek dokein to seem good — more at ex-, decent
First Known Use
15th century, in the meaning defined above