Hypernym

Written By Otis Harris-Wai

Hypernym (haɪ-pər-nɪm) is a noun that means: a word that denotes a broad category which includes more specific words, its antonym is hyponym which is a specific word in a broad category, they are commonly confused, so hopefully this article clears up any confusion you had.

For example, the word animal is a hypernym of the word dog because dog is a more specific word that falls into the broad category of animals. The word hypernym is made up of two affixes: the prefix hyper-, and the suffix -onym with the “O” being removed because most words with the suffix -onym have prefixes that end in an “O”, so the “O” naturally appears in the word but hyper- doesn’t end in an “O” so the “O” didn’t feel natural, so even though there should’ve been an “O” in hypernym, there isn’t 😥.

Finally, the prefix hyper- derives from the Greek word hyper- meaning over, above, or beyond, and the suffix -onym derives from the greek word, ōnymos, meaning word or name. I hope you enjoyed learning about the word “Hypernym” and join me next week for:

🎊WORD OF THE WEEK🎊

Otis Harris-Wai

Otis is the name, Scrabble™, sports, and math are included in my plethora of hobbies. I’m one of Newscool Chronicle’s very own editors. In addition, I write Word of the Week. I am very opinionated when it comes to the best number, the holy number, the greatest prime, and finally, the most RANDOM number: 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37… 37

To summarize myself, Otis>You.