The term univocal comes from the late Latin word univŏcus, which refers to that which has only one name or sound. It is an adjective that allows qualifying what has the same value or nature as another element.
Univocal generally refers to what has only one possible interpretation or what maintains its meaning or essence without variation. For example: “The president’s actions have only one meaning, which is to generate well-being for all members of the community”, “I don’t believe that people have a single, pre-written destiny”, “Those of us who do have a univocal vision of this problem for many years.
See the case of the lyrics of a song. Although all listeners hear the same words, their interpretation of the content may vary. In other words, each individual interprets something different according to their own reading of it, influenced in turn by multiple factors. It can be said, therefore, that the song lacks a unique interpretation. The idea of univocal, on the other hand, can refer to the correspondence that exists between an element of a set with a single element of another set. This notion appears in the field of mathematics. Suppose that an element in an initial set (known as the domain) has a single image in the destination set (the codomain). In this case, the mathematical correspondence is unequivocal. Visually, the one-to-one correspondence is reflected in a single arrow coming out of each element of the represented domain.
