Hello, my fellow travelers.
Today I have two new words for you (and for me): hypernym and hyponym.
Recognizing the Greek prefixes (hyper – over, hypo – under) and the suffix (-nym – name), I thought maybe I could use the powers of Athena to figure out the definitions; alas, I could not. What’s an over-name and an under-name? I couldn’t guess, so I searched the internet and here’s what AI gave me:
- hypernym: A word with a broad meaning that more specific words fall under. For example, color is a hypernym of red. Hypernyms are also called supertypes, umbrella terms, or blanket terms.
- hyponym: A word that belongs to a specific subcategory of something more general. For example, a poodle is a hyponym of dog—a poodle is a specific breed of dog.
Okay, now I’m confused. I found this drawing, which makes more sense to me than a list of words.
In the graphic, hypernym is the term above and hyponyms are the terms below. This goes back to the Greek, and now I think I can successfully provide some examples to you.
| Hypernym (over, above) | Hyponyms (under, below) |
| color | Red, yellow, pink, orange, green, teal, blue |
| clean | Sweep, scrub, vacuum |
| animal | Dog, cat, iguana, guinea pig, capybara |
| tree | Pine, oak, juniper, manzanita, madrona |
| music | R&B, grunge, opera, heavy metal, hip-hop, pop |
| shape | Square, triangle, oval, circle |
| food | Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, carrots |
| beverage | Tea, gin, tonic, coffee, Diet Dr. Pepper (Blackberry) |
I hope these terms make sense to you and that you can win your next trivia night with them!
Wait! Here’s a fun one from a children’s book. I’m so glad I didn’t go to that school!
I hope your day is splendid!
Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications
Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com
Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/
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