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Inlinguistics,meronymy (from Ancient Greek μέρος (méros) 'part' and ὄνυμα (ónuma) 'name') is asemantic relation between ameronym denoting a part and aholonym denoting a whole. In simpler terms, a meronym is in apart-of relationship with its holonym. For example,finger is a meronym ofhand, which is its holonym. Similarly,engine is a meronym ofcar, which is its holonym. Fellow meronyms (naming the various fellow parts of any particular whole) are calledcomeronyms (for example,leaves,branches,trunk, androots are comeronyms under the holonym oftree).
Holonymy (from Ancient Greek ὅλος (hólos) 'whole' and ὄνυμα (ónuma) 'name') is the converse of meronymy.
A closely related concept is that ofmereology, which specifically deals with part–whole relations and is used inlogic. It is formally expressed in terms offirst-order logic. A meronymy can also be considered apartial order.
Meronym and holonym refer topart andwhole respectively, which is not to be confused withhypernym which refers totype. For example, a holonym ofleaf might betree (a leaf is a part of a tree), whereas a hypernym ofoak tree might betree (an oak tree is a type of tree).
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