univocal
adjective
univ·o·cal
yü-ˈni-və-kəl 
1
: having one meaning only
2
: unambiguous
in search of a morally univocal answer
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The History of Univocal
In Latin, the prefix uni- ("one") united with vox ("voice"), creating univocus, the source of English's univocal.
Examples of univocal in a Sentence
those who believe that the language of the Bible is univocal: it is never metaphorical but intended to be taken literally
Recent Examples on the Web
An understanding of user diversity is often unexplored territory for brands, requiring a shift from univocal to multi-frequency communication that constantly and comprehensively reignites connection with targets, drawing them in and reaffirming values, proving to be a true asset.
—
Fairchild Studio, WWD, 26 Nov. 2024
Her inability to distill a message from her show is a testament not so much to Jane’s insufficient writerly chops as to the challenge of wringing out a univocal meaning from biracial America.
—Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic, 13 Aug. 2024
Today’s political mainstream consists of a rising univocal, powerful, and intolerant pro-war movement for which the invasion is existential.
—Tatiana Stanovaya, Foreign Affairs, 18 Nov. 2022
But the narrative emerging from key players in the Arab world for which Tunisia’s Arab Spring legacy presents a clear challenge — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt — was far more univocal: The events in Tunisia marked the death knell for political Islam in democracy.
—Washington Post, 27 July 2021
Yet, as with almost everything Shostakovich wrote, the score defeats a univocal interpretation, its classical four-movement structure interlaced with political, personal, and purely musical messages.
—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2022
Who Lived Her Songs—Cash greatly complicates the popcult caricature of country music as a univocal genre of jingoist belligerence and boosterism, as exemplified by Toby Keith, Daryl Worley, Hank Williams Jr., and the late-career Charlie Daniels.
—Chris Lehmann, The New Republic, 7 Dec. 2021
To be sure, a great deal of Irish verse during the 1910s and 1920s, univocal ‘in the intensity and wrath of [its] invective,’ lacked the rhetorical nuance of Yeats’ Modernism.
—Matthew Carey Salyer, Forbes, 20 May 2021
According to the Morgans, the House of Commons allowed no American petition to be read into the record and debated, on the grounds of a univocal recoil, by the Commons, from the Americans’ assertion of the right of representation.
—William Hogeland, The New Republic, 25 Jan. 2021
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Fairchild Studio, WWD, 26 Nov. 2024
Her inability to distill a message from her show is a testament not so much to Jane’s insufficient writerly chops as to the challenge of wringing out a univocal meaning from biracial America.
—Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic, 13 Aug. 2024
Today’s political mainstream consists of a rising univocal, powerful, and intolerant pro-war movement for which the invasion is existential.
—Tatiana Stanovaya, Foreign Affairs, 18 Nov. 2022
But the narrative emerging from key players in the Arab world for which Tunisia’s Arab Spring legacy presents a clear challenge — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt — was far more univocal: The events in Tunisia marked the death knell for political Islam in democracy.
—Washington Post, 27 July 2021
Yet, as with almost everything Shostakovich wrote, the score defeats a univocal interpretation, its classical four-movement structure interlaced with political, personal, and purely musical messages.
—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2022
Who Lived Her Songs—Cash greatly complicates the popcult caricature of country music as a univocal genre of jingoist belligerence and boosterism, as exemplified by Toby Keith, Daryl Worley, Hank Williams Jr., and the late-career Charlie Daniels.
—Chris Lehmann, The New Republic, 7 Dec. 2021
To be sure, a great deal of Irish verse during the 1910s and 1920s, univocal ‘in the intensity and wrath of [its] invective,’ lacked the rhetorical nuance of Yeats’ Modernism.
—Matthew Carey Salyer, Forbes, 20 May 2021
According to the Morgans, the House of Commons allowed no American petition to be read into the record and debated, on the grounds of a univocal recoil, by the Commons, from the Americans’ assertion of the right of representation.
—William Hogeland, The New Republic, 25 Jan. 2021
Cite this Entry
“Univocal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/univocal. Accessed 6 Jul. 2025.
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