Metonymy is when a thing refers to something else that it's closely associated with, but unlike synecdoche, the part does not have to refer to the whole, or vice versa. Remember when we talked about how 'wheels' was synecdoche for 'car?' Here's the metonym version of the same:
'It was the town's mechanic, not the rich lawyer, who had the nicest ride.'
'Ride' here is a metonym for 'car' because riding is something you do in an automobile, but the 'ride' is not a part of the automobile and therefore does not qualify as synecdoche.
Here's another example: If someone asks you how many plates there are going to be at dinner, what they're really asking you is how many guests are going to show up. Plates are intimately associated with the act of eating, which is what dinner guests typically do, and therefore 'plates' is metonymic for 'dinner guests.' Similarly, if someone tells you 'You have nice kicks,' that's a metonym for shoes, since kicking is something you do with your feet and you wear shoes on your feet. It's not parts referring to wholes (that's synecdoche) but contextual associations linking one word to its meaning in conversation or writing. Technically, synecdoche is actually a very specific kind of metonymy, but synecdoche is a little easier to wrap your head around, and other types of metonymy don't get their own specific categories.
 
Metonymy is when a thing refers to something else that it's closely associated with, but unlike synecdoche, the part does not have to refer to the whole, or vice versa. Remember when we talked about how 'wheels' was synecdoche for 'car?' Here's the metonym version of the same:
'It was the town's mechanic, not the rich lawyer, who had the nicest ride.'
'Ride' here is a metonym for 'car' because riding is something you do in an automobile, but the 'ride' is not a part of the automobile and therefore does not qualify as synecdoche.
Here's another example: If someone asks you how many plates there are going to be at dinner, what they're really asking you is how many guests are going to show up. Plates are intimately associated with the act of eating, which is what dinner guests typically do, and therefore 'plates' is metonymic for 'dinner guests.' Similarly, if someone tells you 'You have nice kicks,' that's a metonym for shoes, since kicking is something you do with your feet and you wear shoes on your feet. It's not parts referring to wholes (that's synecdoche) but contextual associations linking one word to its meaning in conversation or writing. Technically, synecdoche is actually a very specific kind of metonymy, but synecdoche is a little easier to wrap your head around, and other types of metonymy don't get their own specific categories.
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