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Words that end in -onym

An incomplete list of words ending in -onym, including selected definitions

• acronym: a word formed from the initials of one or more words that is pronounceable like a normal word, such as NATO, sometimes in distinction to initialism
• allonym: an author's name of another person's, often a well-known person's name
• anacronym: an acronym that is so well established that its origin as an abbreviation is no longer widely known (a portmanteau of anachronism + acronym), for example scuba and laser.
• ananym: a name written backward and used as a pseudonym
• anonym: something created anonymously, or its creator; an unknown author; a pseudonym
• anepronym: a portmanteau of anacronym and eponym, a word that becomes so well established that it is used to define other objects that share its own definition (eg. aspirin)
• anthroponym: a name of a human being
• antonym: a word with the exact opposite meaning of another word; an antithesis: "high" and "low" are antonyms (compare with "synonym")
• apronym: a word, which as an acronym or backronym, has a meaning related to the meaning of the words constituting the acronym or backronym.
• aptronym: a name appropriate to its owner's occupation or physical properties, such as "Goldsmith" or "Longman" (compare with "charactonym") — coined by Franklin P. Adams
• astronym: a name of a star (or more loosely of a constellation or other heavenly body)
• autonym: Botanical nomenclature for an automatically created name
• backronym: an ordinary word understood as an (usually amusing or ironic) acronym (a portmanteau of back + acronym), such as Fiat understood as "Fix It Again Tomorrow"
• basionym: the first name published for a biological taxon (species, genus, etc.), which remains the defining name for the taxon even when the taxon has been transferred to a new name
• capitonym: a word that changes its meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) when it is capitalized, such as March and march or Polish and polish.
• charactonym: a name of a fictional character reflected in his personality traits, such as Shakespeare's Pistol or Bottom (compare with "aptronym")
• chrematonym: a name of a politico-economic or commercial or cultural institution or thing; a catch-all category
• consonym: a word that has the same consonants as another word, in the same order, ignoring all vowels: a language game — coined circa 1979 by Gary Pisher; specifically a: originally, such a word constructed phonetically (as exam, with consonant pattern /gzm/ = eczema and gizmo). Revised rules by Philip M. Cohen always consider /w/ and /y/ consonants. b: such a word constructed alphabetically (as thence, with consonant pattern "thnc" = ethnic), sometimes distinguished as strict consonym, where "y" is always a consonant, and permissive consonym, where "y" is always a vowel.
• contronym or antagonym or autoantonym: a word that may have opposite meanings in different contexts, such as cleave meaning "stick together" or "split apart"
• cryptonym: a code name; a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word
• demonym: a name of people that refers to the place they come from, such as the "Assyrian", or the "Briton". A type of taxonym
• endonym A self-assigned name by locals of a place. Also known as an autonym (not to be confused with the autonym in botany).
• eponym: a botanical, zoological, artwork, or place name that derives from a real or legendary person; a name for a real or hypothetical person from whom a botanical, geographical, artwork or zoological name is derived; a person after whom a medical condition is named, or the condition so named. A type of taxonym.
• ergonym: sometimes used for the name of an institution or commercial firm
• ethnonym: a name of an ethnic group. A type of taxonym.
• exonym: a name used by one group of people for another group, but who call themselves by a different name, such as "Germans" for "Deutsche"; a place name used by one group that differs from the name used by the people who live there, such as "Cologne" for "Köln"
• geonym: a name of a geographic feature
• heteronym: a word that is spelled in the same way as another but that has a different sound and meaning, for example "bow" as in "bow of a ship" or "bow and arrow" (compare "homonym")
• hodonym: a name of a street or road
• holonym: a word for the whole of which other words are part, in the way house contains roof, door and window; or car contains steering-wheel and engine (compare "meronym")
• homonym: a word that is pronounced and/or spelled the same way as another, but has a different meaning, such as bat as in "fruit bat" or "bat and ball" (compare "heteronym," "isonym")
• hydronym: a name of river, lake, or other body of water
• hyperonym or hypernym: a generic word that stands for a class or group of equally-ranked items, such as "tree" for "beech" or "elm," or "house" for "chalet" or "bungalow." A hyperonym is said to be "superordinate" to a hyponym.
• hypocoronym or hypocoristic: a colloquial, usually unofficial, name of an entity; a pet-name or "nickname"
• hyponym: an item that belongs to and is equally-ranked in a generic class or group, for example "lily" or "violet" in the class of "flowers"; or "limousine" or "hatchback" in the class of "automobiles." A hyponym is said to be "subordinate" to a hyperonym.
• meronym: a word that names a part that belongs to and is therefore subordinate to a larger entity; a part-whole relationship, such as "door" or "window" in "house", or "engine" or "steering-wheel" in "car" (compare "holonym")
• metonym: a word that substitutes a part for the whole it is associated with, for example "crown" for "monarch"; metonymy is the figure of speech incorporating a metonym
• metronym: a name of a human being making reference to that person's mother (contrast "patronym")
• necronym: a reference to or name of a person who has died.
• odonym: a name of a street or road.
• oikonym or (Latinized) oeconym: a name of a house or other building
• oronym: (1) a name of a hill, mountain, or mountain-range; (2) a neologism for homophonic words or phrases.
• paronym: a word that is related to another word and derives from the same root; a cognate word, such as dubious and doubtful
• patronym or patronymic; a name adopted from the father's or ancestor's name, for example "Johnson" from "John," "MacDonald" from "Donald," "O'Brien" from "Brien," or "Ivanovich" from "Ivan"
• phytonym: a name of a plant
• pseudonym: a false and fictitious name, especially one adopted by an author; a pen name
• retronym: a compound or modified noun that replaces an original simple noun, for example "analog watch" now means what "watch" used to mean before the invention of the digital watch; and motorcycles became "solo motorcycles" when others were built with sidecars
• synonym: a word equivalent in meaning or nearly so to another word; a word that may be substituted for another word that has the same or a similar meaning, such as near and close (compare "antonym")
• tautonym: a binomial or scientific name in the taxonomy of living things in which the generic and specific names are the same, such as Gorilla gorilla; a scientific name in which the specific name is repeated, such as Homo sapiens sapiens as distinct from Homo sapiens neanderthalensis; a noun component that is repeated, such as aye-aye or tom-tom; a personal name where both forename and surname are identical, such as Francis Francis
• taxonym: a name used for classification or identification purposes, usually signifying a relationship to something. Taxonyms include binomens, names of clades or taxons, demonyms, ethnonyms, and eponyms. Examples include canine, hominid, and Dryad.
• teknonym: a name of a human being making reference to that person's child (contrast "patronym")
• theonym: a name of a god. The names societies give their gods at times is useful in understanding the origin of their language as well as their view of a particular deity. Analysis of theonyms has been useful in understanding the connections of Indo-European languages, and possibly their religions, in particular. In Abrahamic faiths the origin and meaning of the Tetragrammaton is sometimes deemed to have important historical or even metaphysical meaning.
• toponym: a place or geographical name; the name of an area of the body, as distinguished from the name of an organ
• troponym: a verb convoying a meaning which is a particular case of the meaning of another verb. For example, to duel is a troponym of to fight; to write is a troponym of to communicate; etc.
• zoonym: a name of an animal