Which option is not a division of a term according to signification?

• A. Univocal
• B. Equivocal
• C. Analogous
• D. Universal

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is how a term can signify in different ways. A term can be univocal, signifying the same thing in all its uses; equivocal, signifying completely different things in different uses; or analogical, signifying in a related but not identical way across uses. Universal, however, is about the extent or scope of a term (how broadly it applies), not about how its signification relates across different uses. So it doesn’t belong among the divisions of signification.

For clarity: univocal use means the term keeps one same sense in all statements about it. Equivocal use means the term has entirely different senses in different contexts. Analogical use means the senses are related by a common form of likeness, even if the exact sense shifts. Examples follow the idea: a univocal case would be “dog” in both statements signifying a four-legged mammal; an equivocal case would be a word like “bat” referring to both an animal and a sports implement but with no shared sense; an analogical case would be “healthy” applied to both food and people in a way that extends the sense of health without asserting identical meaning.