What is the term when you are replacing a name with a noun?
What is the term used when replacing a name for a noun? Example Mrs. Lewis walked in.---> The teacher walked in.
The most common term for it seems to be antonomasia, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as:
- The substitution of an epithet or title for a proper name. Also: the substituted epithet itself.
- The use of the proper name of a particular individual as a generic term to denote others who belong to an implied type; an instance of this.
(The sense you want is #1.)
According to the OED, another term for it (in both senses) is pronomination; and one source also claims that periphrasis has these senses [link], though in my experience periphrasis is usually much more general (and the OED does not list such a specific sense for it).