Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Synecdoche
Definition:
Seriously, you expect us to pronounce this one? Okay, fine. If you insist:
sin-EK-duh-KEY
Yep, we're as surprised as you are on that one. Weird, right?
A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part of something represents the whole. So the next time someone says to you, "All hands on deck," tell them thanks for the synecdoche, but you think it's best that your whole body goes on deck, too.