Univocality

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The characteristic of a concept or expression that conveys a single, distinct meaning without ambiguity or confusion
2. The feature of language or terminology that allows it to represent only one clear idea, free from alternative interpretations
3. The state of being clear and precise by having a single meaning without any ambiguity

Etymology: Univocality is a plain compound of two parts: "univocal", meaning having one meaning, and the English suffix "-ity", which turns an adjective into a noun for a quality or state. Its whole meaning therefore comes from the parts it is built on, so the interest lies in the older adjective. "Univocal" carries the Latin prefix "uni-", meaning "one", and "vocal" from "vox", meaning "voice" or "word", so the word literally describes something that speaks with one voice. The adjective has long been used in logic and philosophy to describe a term that applies to different things in exactly the same sense. A word like "animal" applied to both a dog and a horse is univocal in this sense, while the same word applied to a dog and a painted picture of a dog would not be. Univocality is thus the property of a term or a language that keeps its meaning steady across all its uses, which is why the word is most often used in discussions of technical language, where ambiguity can cause real errors.