Tautonym
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Part of speech noun
Quick meaning: Tautonym is a noun meaning (biology) A binomial name consisting of the same word twice, such as Bison bison.
Meaning
(biology) A binomial name consisting of the same word twice, such as Bison bison.
More Meanings
- (linguistics) A word or term made from two identical parts or syllables, such as bonbon or dada.
- An absolute synonym.
Example Sentences
And that would mean a species named Leucanthemum leucanthemum, with the genus and species epithet the same (a tautonym), which is a total no-no in botany.
The chapter on reduplication - "flip-flopping higgledy- piggledy through the riffraff" - differentiates rhyming compounds like bigwig, hotshot, ragtag, sci-fi from repetitions called tautonyms, such as bye-bye, so-so, rah-rah, as well as from ricochet words in which the repeated element is modified: chit-chat, roly-poly, shilly-shally.
Word Forms
- tautonyms
Synonyms for tautonym
Depending on context, synonyms include reduplicant.
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include binomen, binominal, binomial, binomenclature, typonym, hemihomonym.
Related Dictionary Tools
Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.