Figure of Speech?

[Unregistered]

Hello.

I'm trying to remember the exact term for this example, "those are nice wheels." We know you're talking about a car, but you substitute it with a part of that whole, meaning the wheels representing the car. What exactly is that term again, I think it's a figure of speech.

 

[Natalie27]

Hello.

I'm trying to remember the exact term for this example, "those are nice wheels." We know you're talking about a car, but you substitute it with a part of that whole, meaning the wheels representing the car. What exactly is that term again, I think it's a figure of speech.

This thing is called Metonymy...The substitution of a noun for another closely associated noun.

similarily, a camper would be called a "fifth wheel"