If you were discussing POSIX locale, the definitions are quite clear, and there's no ambiguity. But that's also because POSIX subdivides locale into many subsections.

From "man setlocale":

       LC_ALL              All of the locale

       LC_ADDRESS          Formatting of addresses and
                           geography-related items (*)

       LC_COLLATE          String collation

       LC_CTYPE            Character classification

       LC_IDENTIFICATION   Metadata describing the locale (*)

       LC_MEASUREMENT      Settings related to measurements
                           (metric versus US customary) (*)

       LC_MESSAGES         Localizable natural-language messages

       LC_MONETARY         Formatting of monetary values

       LC_NAME             Formatting of salutations for persons (*)

       LC_NUMERIC          Formatting of nonmonetary numeric values

       LC_PAPER            Settings related to the standard paper size (*)

       LC_TELEPHONE        Formats to be used with telephone services (*)

       LC_TIME             Formatting of date and time values