In the study of language acquisition, holophrasis is the prelinguistic use of a single word to express a complex idea.
Toddlers pass through a holophrastic stage early in life, during which they are able to communicate complex ideas using only single words and simple fixed expressions.
Combined with body language, context, and tone of voice, holophrasis is usually sufficient to express a child's needs.
When expressing a complex idea, a child will often omit the more familiar concepts and use only the most recently learned word.
In linguistics, holophrasis is the use of a single word to form a whole sentence, notably in polysynthetic languages.