A hypernym (in Greek υπερνύμιον, literally meaning 'extra name') is a word whose extension includes the extension of the word of which it is a hypernym. A word that is more generic or broad than another given word. To achieve the meaning without a loanword, consider German Oberbegriff, lit. "Overconcept" thus "Superterm". Therefore, another term for a hypernym is a superordinate. A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together. ... A loanword is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ...

For example, vehicle denotes all the things that are separately denoted by the words train, chariot, dogsled, airplane, and automobile and is therefore a hypernym of each of those words. For other uses, see Train (disambiguation). ... Hittite chariot (drawing of an Egyptian relief) Approximate historical map of the spread of the chariot, 2000 –500 BC. A chariot is a two-wheeled, horse-drawn vehicle. ... Dog sled A dog sled (or dogsled) is a sled pulled by one or more dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. ... Fixed-wing aircraft is a term used to refer to what are more commonly known as aeroplanes in Commonwealth English (excluding Canada) or airplanes in North American English. ... An automobile is a wheeled vehicle that carries its own motor. ...

A hypernym is the opposite of a hyponym. For example, plant is hypernymic to flower whereas tulip is hyponymic to flower. A hyponym (in Greek: υπονύμιον, literally meaning few names) is a word whose extension is included within that of another word. ... Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Marchantiophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a fern... Clivia miniata bears bright orange flowers. ... Species See text. ...

Hypernymy is the semantic relation in which one word is the hypernym of another. Hypernymy, the relation words stand in when their extensions stand in the relation of class to subclass, should not be confused with holonymy which is the relation words stand in when the things that they denote stand in the relation of whole to part. A similar warning applies to hyponymy and meronymy. In the main, semantics (from the Greek and in greek letters σημαντικός or in latin letters semantikós, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ... Holonymy (in Greek holon = whole and onoma = name) is a semantic relation. ... A hyponym (in Greek: υπονύμιον, literally meaning few names) is a word whose extension is included within that of another word. ... Meronymy (from the Greek words meros = part and onoma = name) is a semantic relation. ...

See also

• -onym
• synonym
• WordNet (a semantic lexicon for the English language, which puts words in semantic relations to each other, mainly by using the concepts hypernym and hyponym.)