univocally

Univocally is an adverb describing the manner in which a term or predicate is used to express a single, consistent sense across different contexts. In philosophy and linguistics, univocal usage contrasts with equivocal usage (different senses for the same word) and with analogical usage (senses that are related but not identical). A statement is said to be made univocally when the same term carries the same meaning in related propositions.

Etymology and sense: the word derives from Latin univocus, from uni- “one” and vox/voc- “voice” or “calling.” The adverbial form univocally follows typical English affixation, yielding a label for how terms are applied in discourse rather than for a particular factual claim about any object.

Philosophical background: in medieval and early modern philosophy, scholars debated whether terms could be predicated of God and creatures in a univocal way, or whether predication must be analogical to avoid equivocation about divine nature. Some thinkers maintained a univocal sense for certain essential terms, while others argued that theological and metaphysical discourse requires analogy to preserve meaningful but not identical senses across beings and the divine. The broader contemporary use tends to treat univocality as a normative ideal describing terms that maintain a single sense, while acknowledging that many everyday and technical terms exhibit polysemy or context-dependent meaning.

Modern usage: today, univocally is often discussed in semantics and philosophy of language as a diagnostic of how terms function across domains. It helps clarify when terms have fixed, identical meanings versus when context or domain-specific conventions alter their sense. See also univocal, equivocal, and analogy in language and logic.