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Meronymy (from the Greek words meros = part and onoma = name) is a semantic relation concept used in linguistics. A meronym denotes a constituent part of, or a member of something. That is,
- X is a meronym of Y if Xs are parts of Ys, or
- X is a meronym of Y if Xs are members of Ys.
For example, 'Winchester Cathedral' is a meronym of 'Church of England' because Winchester Cathedral is part of the Church of England.
Meronymy is the opposite of holonymy. A closely related concept is that of mereology, which specifically deals with part/whole relations and is used in logic. It is formally expressed in terms of first-order logic.
In knowledge representation languages, meronymy is often expressed as "part-of".
External links
- Online source for English language: http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn
"Meronymy"