Synecdoche Examples

Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a whole is represented by a part of it.

Synecdoche is different from metonymy. In synechdoche, the part that is used to represent the whole is actually a part of the whole. With metonymy, the thing that is used to represent the whole is not a part of the whole.

1. Referring to a car as "wheels".

2. Referring to a helper as a "hand."

3. Referring to the alphabet as the "ABCs."

4. Referring to cows as "heads" of cattle.

5. Referring to a gossip as a "wagging tongue."

Examples of Synecdoche from Literature

1. "Beautiful are the feet that bring the good news." The Bible

2. "I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas." T.S. Eliot

3. "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears." Julius Caesar, Shakespeare

4. "Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean." Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare

5. "Take thy face hence." MacBeth, Shakespeare