Hyponyms are words that are the specific examples of a general word, a ‘superordinate'.

Woman reading with headphones on in a library

They can be compared with synonyms, which mean the same things, and antonyms, which mean opposite things.

Example
Red, white and blue are all colours.

In the classroom
Learners can record words in hyponym groups in vocabulary banks and add new words to these groups. This can be a useful way to process new vocabulary and may mirror how we organise words in our first language.

Further links:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/lexical-notebooks-or-vocabulary-cards

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/snack-facts-recording-vocabulary

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/kids-vocabulary

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