Chapter 25 — That although different names are said of God, nevertheless they are not synonyms

In this connection three observations are in order. The first is that the various names applied to God are not synonyms, even though they signify what is in reality the same thing in God. In order to be synonyms, names must signify the same thing and represent the same intellectual conception. But when the same object is signified according to diverse notions, that is, diverse understandings which the mind forms of that object, the names are not synonymous. For then the meaning is not entirely the same, since names directly signify intellectual conceptions, which are likenesses of things. Therefore, since the various names predicated of God signify the various conceptions our mind forms of him, they are not synonymous, even though they signify absolutely the same reality.