mononym

plural mononyms

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

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

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

   3 more examples

   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 ;

   1891, The Shipley collection of scientific papers - Volume 27

   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.

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

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

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

2. A single term for a thing or concept, allowing for no synonyms.

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

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

   1 more example

   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.

   1993, Richard Alan Strehlow, Sue Ellen Wright, Standardizing Terminology for Better Communication, →ISBN