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Literature Glossary

Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.

Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.

Synecdoche

Definition:

Seriously, you expect us to pronounce this one? Okay, fine. If you insist:

sin-EK-duh-KEY

Yep, we're as surprised as you are on that one. Weird, right?

A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part of something represents the whole. So the next time someone says to you, "All hands on deck," tell them thanks for the synecdoche, but you think it's best that your whole body goes on deck, too.