pronoun? Maybe?

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What's it called - the part of speed when you say "American" or "Canadian" or "a man"?

Trying to figure out specifically what it's called when someone says something like, "kill the gay" as if "gay" was the only thing that defined him or her.

"kill the gay" - gay is a noun.

"kill the gay man" - gay is an adjective.

"kill the bigot" - bigot is a noun.

pronoun is he, she, etc.

Maybe the words you are looking for are prejudice, stereotypes, scapegoat. Those are extensive topics.

You may be thinking of synecdoche (click), although I'm not sure about your example. But maybe one of the linked words at that page will be closer to what you're looking for.

Good luck in your search for the mot juste!

Just anything - a one word anything that can be used to describe someone. Bigotry and hate and prejudice is playing no part of this.

See a black man running down the field, "look at the black run"
See a girl with black hair and black clothes and makeup on, "the goth in isle 7"

Some people who don't seem very intelligent (and yes, bigoted) often say, "I'm gonna kill me a gay tonight!" or something like that. Just want to know in what context is "gay" being used.

Possibly epithet (click) or sobriquet (click)? That just about exhausts me unless you can give me a clue ("sounds like...") as to the specific word you're thinking of. Otherwise it's just an adjective used as a noun (click)--I don't know that it has a more specific name but I can ask my old H.S. A.P. English teacher if no one else hits on it here. He's a real know-it-all.

Adjectival noun? (An adjective used as a noun)

One more quick idea--moniker (click and see examples)?