know yer 'nyms, kids!

A quick guide to words
that end in 'nym'.

do the words mean the same thing but they're spelt and pronounced differently?

that's a synonym (e.g. couch/sofa)

do they mean opposite things?

that's an antonym (e.g. good/bad)

are they spelt the same and sound the same but have different meanings?

that's a homonym (e.g. address: 'speak to' vs 'a location')

Are they spelt the same but sound different and have different meanings?

that's a heteronym (e.g. tear: 'to rip' vs 'liquid from the eye')

is the word a more specific term for a more general category?

that's a hyponym (e.g. 'spoon' is a hyponym of 'cutlery')

is the word a category that contains other words with more specific meanings?

that's a hypernym (e.g. 'colour' is a hyponym of 'red'. this is the inverse relationship of 'hyponym' above)

is it made up from the initial letters of other words?

that's an acronym (e.g. 'GIF' - Graphics Interchange Format)

or is it a word that came first, and then words for each letter were made to fit it?

that's a backronym (e.g. 'posh' - 'Port Out, Starboard Home', 'SAD' - 'Seasonal Affective Disorder'; 'adidas' - 'All Day I Dream About Sport')

is it a substitute for something else?

that's a metonym (e.g. 'Canberra' for when talking about the Australian Government)

is it a person, place, or thing after which something is named?

that's an eponym (e.g. 'Franz Kafka' is the eponym of kafkaesque)

are they spelt the same but the meaning changes when capitalised?

that's a capitonym (e.g. 'polish' meaning 'to clean' vs 'Polish' meaning 'from Poland')

is it the name of a place?

that's a toponym

is it a made up name?

that's a pseudonym (e.g. 'George Eliot', real name Mary Ann Evans)

is it a string of words that sound like other words?

that's an oronym (e.g. 'ice cream' and 'I scream', 'mint spy' and 'mince pie')

is it a name used by foreigners for a place, group, or person, that isn't used by those who speak the language in question?

that's an exonym (e.g. 'Germany' for 'Deutschland')

er, is it a person's name that's amusingly appropriate to their occupation?

that's an aptronym (or sometimes called a euonym) e.g. 'Margaret Court' was a renowned tennis player (and a homophobe, but that's unrelated...)

um, is it a name for people from a particular place?

that's a demonym e.g. 'Sydneysiders', 'Melburnian', 'Londoners', 'Spaniard' etc

oh, is it a word that has multiple meanings, two of which are opposite?

that's a contronym (sometimes called an autantonym) e.g. 'clip' which can mean 'attach to', as well as 'cut off'

is it a word whose meaning you keep forgetting?

that's a lapsonym (for me, the word is 'elide')

* shrugs *