Synecdoche is a word I’d never come across until I opened the dictionary at random just now. Despite never having heard of this device previously, I have used it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have too.  A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which part of something represents the whole.

For example you might refer to a traditional Sunday lunch as ‘a roast’ even though the vegetables and gravy were cooked in another way. It’s generally understood that ‘a blonde’ will have more body parts than just her hair. When we refer to writing a book we generally also mean planning, rewriting, editing, proofreading and trying to find a market, not just bashing out a first draft.

Here’s a picture of a couple of birds – which, I think, is a synecdoche for a picture of a couple of birds and their shadows and a dead leaf, on some grass which has been marked to form a football pitch.