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When striving to name a concept with great precision, it helps to know about nyms. The root word "nym" comes from the Greek word onoma, a name. We use the term nym to identify many classes of words. In his book, Find It Online, author Alan M. Schlein describes searching the Internet as, "...a blend of learned skills, common sense and a bit of clever intuition." Knowledge of nyms will sharpen your skills and enhance your intuition. Knowledge of nyms helps you understand the shades of meaning contained in your keywords. Understanding how search engines deal with keywords helps you craft queries that avoid nym confusion. Mastering nyms means better search results. |
Well Known Nyms
The most common nyms are synonyms, hyponyms, and hypernyms. We are all familiar with synonyms: words that mean the same thing. Generating a list of synonyms for your keyword is the first step of query formation. Hypernyms are general words that broaden a search, while hyponyms are often proper nouns that narrow the focus of your search. Car is a hypernym. Chevrolet is a hyponym.
(For more on more commonly used nyms see two other IMSA Micro Modules:
Authored by Dennis O'Connor 2003