An umbrella term is a single common category that covers multiple terms. Umbrella term is also called a hypernym. For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields. Similarly, an umbrella organization is a central and coordinating body representing a number of smaller, separate bodies.
The closely related blanket term is a word or phrase that is used to describe multiple groups of related things. The degree of relation may vary, even have a minimal relationship, but blanket terms often trade specificity for ease-of-use; in other words, a blanket term by itself gives little detail about the things that it describes or the relationships between them, but is easy to say and remember. Blanket terms may originate as slang, and eventually become integrated into the general vocabulary.
Read more about Umbrella Term: Examples of Umbrella Terms, Examples of Blanket Terms, Other Umbrella Terms
Famous quotes containing the words umbrella and/or term:
“There are certain things—as, a spider, a ghost,
The income-tax, gout, an umbrella for three—
That I hate, but the thing that I hate the most
Is a thing they call the Sea.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“I am a colored woman or a Negro woman. Either one is OK. People dislike those words now. Today these use this term African American. It wouldn’t occur to me to use that. I prefer to think of myself as an American, that’s all!”
—Annie Elizabeth Delany (b. 1891)