mononym

English

Etymology

From mono- (“one”) +‎ -onym (“word, name”).

Noun

mononym (plural mononyms)

1. A single name by which a person, thing, etc., is known.

   The singer-songwriter Madonna Louise Ciccone is known by the mononym Madonna.

   • 1891, The Shipley collection of scientific papers - Volume 27:

     The atlas and axis have special names, but most of the vertebra, like the ribs, are merely numbered ; among the arteries, the aorta only has a mononym ;

   • 1898, Biological lectures delivered at the Marine Biological Laboratory of .Wood's Holl [sic].:

     Briefly, the adoption of calcar is a logical corollary of the recommendation which is common to the reports of all four American committees, vi., "Other things being equal, it is recommended that mononyms be preferred to polynyms." Calcar avis is a polyonym ; calcar is a mononym. If it be said that unguis is also a mononym, the answer is that in this case "other things" would not be equal, because (1) no general preference has ever been shown for it or for any term of which it is a constituent; (2) there would be lost the advantage of the correlation now existing between the ental ridge and the fissure collacated therewith.

   • 1970, John Springer, The Fondas: The Films and Careers of Henry, Jane, and Peter Fonda:

     As the heroine, the tall, thin actress who calls itself Capucine is as crystalline and icy as her elegant mononym.

   • 2019, Alexis Hall, The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, →ISBN, page 146:

     The academic I already knew by reputation; they went by the mononym Farah and were one of the foremost authorities on Ilari poetry.

2. A single term for a thing or concept, allowing for no synonyms.
   • 1993, Richard Alan Strehlow, Sue Ellen Wright, Standardizing Terminology for Better Communication, →ISBN:

     ISO 704 and ISO 1087 prescribe mononymy as highly desirable for standardized terminologies, but as experience shows, individuals in developing disciplines (having unsettled terminology) are rarely able to agree on mononyms.

   • 1997, Knowledge Organization: KO. - Volume 24, page 14:

     After usage has created consensus on a mononym, it becomes possible to treat the accepted (preferred) forms in a terminographic glossary...

Synonyms

• monomial
• mononom
• mononomial
• uninym

Antonyms

• polynym

Derived terms

Derived terms

• mononymic
• mononymize
• mononymous
• mononymy

References

• Mononym. A word a Day, 2003.