Hypernyms and Hyponyms

A hypernym is a broad term for a group of B2C Commerce products. A hyponym is a term for an item in the group that the hypernym describes. A hypernym returns the results of all of its hyponyms, but the hyponyms only return their own results. Exclude specific hypernyms using negative hypernyms.

The total number of search results on the hypernym can be less than for each of the hyponyms if there’s overlap in the categories you’re searching on. In the following example, if you search for Tunic, Shirt, and Blouse individually, the sum of the search hits is 13. However, when you search for the hypernym "Tops", which has Tunic, Shirt, and Blouse as hyponyms, only nine search hits return. This is because several of the search hits contain more than one of the hyponyms. This is because the hypernym search removes duplicate results returned in the individual searches.

Note Don't define each hyponym and hypernym with more than four words. Use the Common Phrases feature for multi-word search terms.

For example, consider the hypernym rule where the hypernym is footwear, and the hyponyms are [shoes, boots, sandals, sneakers].

In case of the hypernym footwear, if the shopper searches for footwear, the search results for only footwear appear and not results for shoes, boots, sandals, or sneakers.