Hyponyms (Entity Subtypes)

Hyponyms are entity subtypes — 'espresso' and 'drip' are hyponyms of 'coffee'; 'sedan' and 'SUV' are hyponyms of 'car'. In AI Search, hyponyms directly answer sub-queries generated by Query Fan-out: the question 'which car to buy' breaks down into 'which sedan', 'which SUV', 'which wagon', and each hyponym as an H2 heading becomes a ready-made answer to a separate sub-query.

Hyponyms build the depth of topic coverage (Depth) required by Topical Authority. The more subtypes you cover, the greater your topical authority in the algorithm's eyes.

In practice, use lexical expansion tools to generate a complete list of hyponyms for your Central Entity, then turn each into an H2 or H3 heading. Legal industry example: 'civil law' → hyponyms: contract law, property law, inheritance law, family law. Each becomes a separate chunk and separate citation opportunity.

Hyponyms work with the Grouping question type from Frame Semantics ('what are the types of X?').