A hypernym is a word whose definition includes the definition of another word (its hyponym).
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2answers
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Is there a single term for “nieces and nephews”?
I find it handy when talking about my sons and daughters I can just say my children. It's nice to say nieces instead of sibling's daughters. I wonder if there is a similar term for nieces and nephews ...
40
votes
11answers
2k views
Is there a term which covers ATM cards, credit cards, and debit cards?
I work in accommodation for international travelers, and people can pay with various kinds of cards:
In some countries such as USA, credit cards are very common, but debit cards are not so common.
...
34
votes
7answers
2k views
“Left” and “right” are to “side” as “front” and “rear” are to what?
Is there an equivalent word to "side" when speaking of the front or rear of something (e.g. a car)?
So, a mechanic might say:
You damaged your wing-mirror? Ok, which side?
... or...
You ...
23
votes
14answers
2k views
Generic name for places like village, town and cities
There is the German word Ort or Ortschaft which is a hypernym for places where people live like
villages
towns
cities
etc.
Is there a correspondent word in English?
I don't want to use location ...
19
votes
8answers
917 views
Word that means “outdated name”
Is there a word that means "outdated name"?
For example:
Record, although very little music is on vinyl
Film, although most movies are digital
Horsepower, although no one uses horses as a metric ...
19
votes
11answers
938 views
What word defines a category suited for both header and footer?
So there I was, trying to ask a question (now on SO) on Webmaster.SE partly involving a 'header' and a 'footer'. One part of my code defines shared aspects of both the header and the footer.
Anyway ...
18
votes
7answers
1k views
Does British English have a word for dry, starchy savoury snacks that are not fried slices of potato?
Everyone, the world over, enjoys savoury snacks, particularly dry, starchy ones. Far and away the most popular kind in the Anglosphere are the ones made from deep-fried (sometimes baked) thinly-sliced ...
18
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5answers
1k views
What overarching category do “street,” “road,” “avenue”, etc. belong to?
Apple belongs to the category of Fruit.
What category do street, road, and avenue belong to?
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8answers
950 views
Are all myths superstitions, or are all superstitions myths?
Are all myths superstitions, or is it the other way around, i.e. all superstition being myths?
Or can these words basically be used interchangeably?
The dictionary definitions of these words seem ...
11
votes
9answers
2k views
Is there a word that means both opening and closing a door?
As in,
Please do not __ this door after midnight.
Operate? Move?
11
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2answers
389 views
Is there a technical term for insideout-ness?
So the technical term for right or left handedness is chirality.
The technical term for evenness or oddness is parity.
Is there a similar term for inside-out-ness vs right-side-out-ness?
EDIT:
I ...
9
votes
9answers
679 views
Hypernym for “boys only”, “girls only”, and “co-ed”
What word would be used on a form where one is asked to stipulate if a school accepts only boys, girls or is co-ed?
We are creating the form, and the word I am looking for would be used for a drop ...
9
votes
5answers
194 views
What would a generic term be for a puck or ball in a sport?
I'm a programmer and like to name my variables as accurately as possible (who knows who will be reading my code in a few years' time?)
I've been thinking about sports video games recently, and have ...
8
votes
3answers
373 views
What is the correct term to describe 'primary', 'secondary', etc
What is the correct term to describe the words in the following sequence: primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, quinary, senary, septenary, octonary, nonary, denary, duodenary, etc.
I am thinking ...
8
votes
11answers
2k views
A word for clothes, shoes, accessories?
I'm looking for a word that applies to all the things a person can wear, e.g. clothes, shoes, accessories, etc. It musn't be too generic, e.g. product, item, etc.
8
votes
5answers
790 views
Is there a word for a class of circular shapes?
I'm not sure if this belongs here, but I'm wondering if there is a word for a class of circular shapes?
Thinking about this hierarchically:
* Shape
* Polygon
* Square
* Rectangle
* ...
8
votes
5answers
269 views
What is the warning that you're almost done called?
Consider the following items:
the warning track around a baseball outfield
the red stripe near the end of the a roll of receipt paper
the margin bell on a typewriter
the rumble strips when a highway ...
7
votes
3answers
456 views
Gender-independent replacement for “fiancée” and “fiancé”
I can use child to replace son or daughter, sibling for sister or brother, and parent for mother or father.
What is the unisex replacement for fiancée and fiancé?
I don’t need it for speech, but for ...
7
votes
4answers
2k views
What are: province, territory, protectorate, state…?
Often a country will have regions called "provinces" or "states". Other times they are called "territories" and "protectorates".
Is there a generic term for these words?
Is there a full list of ...
7
votes
4answers
215 views
Hypernym for “clients”, “members” and “partners”
We're building a feature for a website and trying to think of a hypernym for clients, partners and members so that the feature remains generic enough for re-use later on other websites.
7
votes
1answer
295 views
English term that groups notes and coins of a currency
I'm programming a web application and I need to name the "class of things" that are notes and coins.
So far the best I could find was "currency piece".
Is that the correct way of naming the notes ...
7
votes
5answers
244 views
Word that describes a collection of goals
I have a list of goals, and I need a word that would best describe it. A person would need to complete work on these goals to achieve their overall goal. E.g., "weight loss" would be a main goal, with ...
7
votes
8answers
352 views
Is there a hypernym for “order confirmation”, “quotation” and “invoice”?
Is there an abstraction for the following three words?
Order confirmation
Quotation
Invoice
I want to create a base class for the above but I can't find a word that describes all three.
7
votes
4answers
266 views
General term for muggle-type terms?
Is there a general term to refer to "a semi-denigrating term used by a minority social group (not necessarily a racial group) to refer to the majority". Examples would be "muggle", "gentile", ...
6
votes
3answers
267 views
Hypernym of 'deposit' and 'withdraw'
I am looking for a hypernym of to deposit and to withdraw (money to and from a bank account).
I thought about several options like "to perform a financial transaction", however I need something more ...
6
votes
8answers
373 views
Is there a generic name for public transport interchanges?
Is there a generic name for public transport interchanges? For example: railway stations, bus stations, ferryports, airports, tram stops.
6
votes
7answers
640 views
Is there a single word for a “unit of time”?
If I were to have a text box for someone to enter an integer and dropdown list from which my user would select day(s), hour(s), minute(s) or second(s), is there a single word that would describe what ...
6
votes
3answers
414 views
What do you call a person working in law?
Politics is to politician as law is to what?
A hypernym for lawyer/judge/law student, etc.
Edit: Not only in the legal system, anyone practicing or researching the subject. Maybe politics wasn't the ...
6
votes
7answers
413 views
What's the category name of “city” and “rural”?
When I ask whether someone's living situation is rural or city, what's the category I'm asking about? Living situation includes many other things, but there's gotta be a word summarizing those two ...
6
votes
6answers
471 views
What's the word that combines inclusion/exclusion?
Like visibility combines show/hidden, what's the word that combines inclusion/exclusion?
EDIT:
The problem is inspired by the VIM reference manual:
A character motion is either inclusive or ...
5
votes
1answer
318 views
Hypernym: Word that means 'window' or 'door'
There's the Italian word serramento which means "a window or a door", used in this way for example:
Our company produces [serramenti] in aluminium.
Is there an equivalent word or expression ...
5
votes
6answers
180 views
What are the pieces used to fill in a template called?
If I have a template (say a generic letter) that is filled in with various pieces of data (say, the name of the addressee), what is a general term for those pieces of data?
For example:
Dear ...
5
votes
2answers
316 views
Is there a word like “sides” that means “top or bottom”?
"Sides" can be used to describe positioning relative to the left or right of an object. Is there a corresponding word that has the same meaning for the top or bottom of an object?
For example, if I ...
5
votes
5answers
212 views
What's the hypernym for “owned” and “rented”?
If I must ask a person if his house is owned or rented, which word would make a proper relation?
I am looking for something like this:
What's your [...] with the Property (or Car, or Camera)? ...
5
votes
2answers
88 views
What is the hypernym for “next” and “previous”?
I'm looking for an umbrella term for "next" and "previous" so that I don't have to call my programming methods "NextPrevious".
Is there a hypernym for the two?
5
votes
1answer
263 views
What is the name for punctuation marks such as commas and periods that separate things like clauses or sentences?
When I'm editing people's writing, I recently started writing the comment "put an article here" rather than "put a 'the' or 'a' here".
Similarly, right now I have to put, "you need a comma or period ...
5
votes
3answers
130 views
Hypernym for “audiobook”, “podcast”, “speech”, etc.?
I am looking for a short and concise term (preferably one word) that can be used as a hypernym for essentially everything that contains (audio) speech (e.g. audiobooks, podcasts, recorded news ...
5
votes
1answer
91 views
Things we put on the left side of lists
I'm looking for an umbrella term (hypernym) that covers the things we put on the left side of lists — bullets, numbers, letters, etc. Is there such a word?
4
votes
7answers
936 views
Is there a hypernym for debit/credit?
I’m looking for a generic word that means “debit or credit”.
Say I have a transaction, and I don’t know whether it’s a debit on the account or a credit on the account, and I want to ask about it, is ...
4
votes
4answers
250 views
How do you refer to a hyponym that is the same word as the hypernym?
What word (or how do you phrase things) do you use when the ostensible word for the class is the same as the word for a subset of the class?
For example, in the United States, there are many brands ...
4
votes
3answers
156 views
Term encompassing thread, string, lanyard, and wire
Looking for a general term for things one would store on a spool -- thread, string, lanyard, wire, that sort of thing. Things that occur in long lines and will get tangled up if you don't organize ...
4
votes
3answers
219 views
Hypernym for human organs, body parts, etc
I'd like to find a hypernym for human organs such as liver and lung, body parts such as left upper arm, piece of muscle such as biceps, and other systems such as human body fat, body fluids. Is there ...
4
votes
4answers
335 views
Equivalent word which represents 'Team' or 'Individual'
I am developing a coding contest project with multiple contests.
The participants can be a team or an independent individual, depending on the contest setting. I want to define only one model for the ...
4
votes
6answers
229 views
Hypernym for “compassion”, “malice”, “hatred”, “love”, “inspiration”, etc
It's not specifically an emotion, a feeling, or a state of mind—it's something else. Anyone have an idea what is is I'm looking for? Maybe if someone could complete this sentence:
Anger, rage, ...
4
votes
3answers
142 views
Single word for the holder or location of an item?
I'm looking for a single word to describe the place or person an item is assigned to. The context is basic asset management, where you have a list of assets (such as computers, software licenses or ...
4
votes
2answers
233 views
A word that encompasses buying and selling?
I'm trying to retag some questions (such as this one) on the Board Game Stack Exchange, and the only good tag I can think of is "Selling".
But that seems inefficient, and a word that covers both ...
4
votes
1answer
101 views
“Multimedia” or “media” for menu name [closed]
I'm developing a website on which photos and videos will be shared. But I couldn't decide on the main menu name to use under which there will be two subcategories Photo Gallery and Videos. Which one ...
4
votes
3answers
738 views
Hypernym for “increase” and “decrease”
Is there a word in English which would encompass both the action of increasing or decreasing [the value of] something?
I am looking at a word similar to modify, change or alter. But the first two do ...
3
votes
5answers
3k views
What is the name of this type of word: “Mr.”, “Ms.”, “Dr.”?
What is this type of word called: Mr., Ms., Dr.? In the document I am using, it is referred to as the "prefix", but I don't think that is correct.
3
votes
8answers
158 views
Hypernym for “Denial”?
Dictionary defines denial in a few senses, the ones I'm interested in are:
refusal to believe a doctrine, theory, or the like.
disbelief in the existence or reality of a thing.
refusal to ...
