Substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in `they counted heads').
Roget 147:
substitution,
commutation;
supplanting
etc.
v.;
metaphor,
metonymy
etc.
(figure of speech)
521.
[Thing substituted]
substitute,
ersatz,
makeshift,
temporary expedient,
replacement,
succedaneum;
shift,
pis aller [Fr.],
stopgap,
jury rigging,
jury mast,
locum tenens,
warming pan,
dummy,
scapegoat;
double;
changeling;
quid pro quo,
alternative.
representative
etc.
(deputy)
759;
palimpsest.
price,
purchase money,
consideration,
equivalent.
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Roget 514:
supposition,
assumption,
assumed position,
postulation,
condition,
presupposition,
hypothesis,
blue sky hypothesis,
postulate,
postulatum [Lat.],
theory;
thesis,
theorem;
data;
proposition,
position;
proposal
etc.
(plan)
626;
presumption
etc.
(belief)
484;
divination.
conjecture;
guess,
guesswork,
speculation;
rough guess,
shot,
shot in the dark [Coll.];
conjecturality†;
surmise,
suspicion,
sneaking suspicion;
estimate,
approximation
(nearness)
197.
inkling,
suggestion,
hint,
intimation,
notion,
impression;
bare supposition,
vague supposition,
loose supposition,
loose suggestion.
association of ideas,
(analogy)
514.1;
metonym [Gramm.],
metonymy [Gramm.],
simile
(metaphor)
521.
conceit,
idea,
thought;
original idea,
invention
(imagination)
515.
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Roget 521:
figure of speech;
facon de parler [Fr.],
way of speaking,
colloquialism.
phrase
etc.
566;
figure,
trope,
metaphor,
enallage†,
catachresis†;
metonymy [Gramm.],
synecdoche [Sem.];
autonomasia†,
irony,
figurativeness
etc.
adj.;
image,
imagery;
metalepsis†,
type,
anagoge†,
simile,
personification,
prosopopoeia†,
allegory,
apologue†,
parable,
fable;
allusion,
adumbration;
application.
exaggeration,
hyperbole
etc.
549.
association,
association of ideas
(analogy)
514.1
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Dutch: metonymie, metonymia, naamwisseling
Polish: metonimia, zamiennia