Standard Lemma guide

hyponym

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈhaɪpəʊ.nɪm/
  • UK: /ˈhaɪpə.nɪm/
  • homophone: hypernym
  • Canada, US: /ˈhaɪ.poʊ.nɪm/
  • Canada, US: /ˈhaɪpə.nɪm/
  • Canada: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A more specific term; a subordinate grouping word or phrase; a term designating a subclass of another more general class described by the given word.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences, semantics

Examples

  • The words “dog”, “cat”, and “horse” are hyponyms of “animal” because dogs, cats, and horses are types of animal.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: subordinate

Antonyms: hypernym, hyperonym, superordinate

2

noun

Meaning 2

a word that is more specific than a given word

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: subordinate, subordinate word

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: word

History

Etymology

From hyp- + -onym or hypo- + -nym; from Ancient Greek ὑπό (hupó, “under”) + ὄνυμα (ónuma) ("appellation"), a Doric specific dialectal form of ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”).

Across languages

Translations

42 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: տեսականիշ (tesakaniš) — more specific word
  • Bulgarian: хипоним (hiponim) — more specific word
  • Catalan: hipònim — more specific word
  • Chinese Mandarin: 下義詞 /下义词 (xiàyìcí) — more specific word
  • Chinese Mandarin: 下位詞 /下位词 (xiàwèicí) — more specific word
  • Czech: hyponymum — more specific word
  • Danish: hyponym — more specific word
  • Danish: underbegreb — more specific word
  • Dutch: hyponiem — more specific word
  • Esperanto: hiponimo — more specific word
  • Finnish: alakäsite — more specific word
  • Finnish: hyponyymi — more specific word
  • French: hyponyme — more specific word
  • Galician: hipónimo — more specific word
  • Georgian: ჰიპონიმი (hiṗonimi) — more specific word
  • German: Unterbegriff — more specific word
  • German: Hyponym — more specific word
  • Greek: υπώνυμο (ypónymo) — more specific word
  • Hungarian: hiponima — more specific word
  • Hungarian: alárendelt fogalom/szó/név/kifejezés — more specific word
  • Icelandic: undirheiti — more specific word
  • Indonesian: hiponim — more specific word
  • Italian: iponimo — more specific word
  • Japanese: 下位語 (kaigo) — more specific word
  • Korean: 하위어 (hawieo) — more specific word
  • Korean: 하의어 (hauieo) — more specific word
  • Northern Kurdish: hîponîm — more specific word
  • Malay: hiponim — more specific word
  • Occitan: iponim — more specific word
  • Polish: hiponim — more specific word
  • Portuguese: hipónimo — more specific word
  • Portuguese: hipônimo — more specific word
  • Romanian: hiponim — more specific word
  • Russian: гипо́ним (gipónim) — more specific word
  • Serbo-Croatian: хипо̀нӣм — more specific word
  • Serbo-Croatian: hipònīm — more specific word
  • Slovene: podpomenka — more specific word
  • Spanish: hipónimo — more specific word
  • Swedish: hyponym — more specific word
  • Turkish: alt kavram — more specific word
  • Vietnamese: từ hạ vị — more specific word
  • Walloon: dizotrin mot — more specific word