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troponym

/ˈtrɑpənɪm/
IPA guide

Other forms: troponyms

A troponym is a word that's a more specific way to describe doing something than another word. "Whisper," "blurt," and "stutter" are all troponyms of "speak."

Some classic examples of troponyms are "nibble" and "gobble," rather than the general word "eat." Choose a troponym when you want to write or speak more precisely — instead of having the character in your book walk down the street, make them traipse, mince, or stagger. It's mainly linguists who used this term, which is derived from the Greek tropos "a turn or change," and onymos, "name."

Definitions of troponym
  1. noun
    a word that denotes a manner of doing something
    “`march' is a troponym of `walk'”
    synonyms: manner name
    see moresee less
    type of:
    word
    a unit of language that native speakers can identify
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