index
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index¹
- /ˈɪndɛks/ Canada, US, UK
- /ˈɪndɛks/ California
- [ˈɪndæks] California
- /ˈɪndeks/ Australia
Where it comes from
From Latin index (“a discoverer, informer, spy; of things, an indicator, the forefinger, a title, superscription”), from indicō (“point out, show”); see indicate.
noun indexes · indices · index's
- An alphabetical listing of items and their location. The index of a book lists words or expressions and the pages of the book upon which they are to be found.
-
The index finger; the forefinger.
Similar: arrow-finger, demonstrator, first finger, forefinger, index, index finger, lickpot, pointer, pointer finger, pointling, showing finger, teacher
-
A movable finger on a gauge, scale, etc.
Similar: pointer
-
A symbol resembling a pointing hand, used to direct particular attention to a note or paragraph.
Similar: manicule, see others in Wikipedia at manicule § Terminology
-
That which points out; that which shows, indicates, manifests, or discloses.
Among the gravity indexes is the severance of diplomatic relations.
Similar: indicator
- A sign; an indication; a token. His son's empty guffaws […] struck him with pain as the indices of a weak mind.
- A type of noun where the meaning of the form changes with respect to the context; e.g., 'Today's newspaper' is an indexical form since its referent will differ depending on the context. See also icon and symbol.
- A single number calculated from an array of prices or of quantities.
- A number representing a property or ratio; a coefficient. In other words, we predict that the index for a new pair of materials can be obtained from the indexes of the individual materials, both against air or against vacuum.
- A raised suffix indicating a power.
- An integer or other key indicating the location of data, e.g. within an array, vector, database table, associative array, or hash table.
- A data structure that improves the performance of operations on a table.
- The number of cosets that exist. The index of 2ℤ in ℤ is 2.
- A prologue indicating what follows. Ay me, what act, that roars so loud and thunders in the index?
verb indexes · indexing · indexed
- To arrange an index for something, especially a long text. MySQL does not index short words and common words.
- To inventory; to take stock.
- To normalise in order to account for inflation; to correct for inflation by linking to a price index in order to maintain real levels.
- To measure by an associated value. For thousands of years, human progress was indexed to the ease and speed of our mobility: our capacity to walk on two legs, and then to ride on animals, sail on boats, chug across the land and fly through the air, all to procure for ourselves the food and materials we wanted.
- To be indexical for (some situation or state of affairs); to indicate. For example, the feature I indexes the current speaker in the speech event and you, the current addressee.
- To access a value in a data container by an index.
- To use a mechanism to move an object to a precise location.
Index²
proper noun
- An unincorporated community in Miller County, Arkansas.
- An unincorporated community in Morgan County, Kentucky.
- A ghost town in Cass County, Missouri.
- A small hamlet in Otsego County, New York.
- An unincorporated community in King George County, Virginia.
- A town in Snohomish County, Washington.
- An unincorporated community in Gilmer County, West Virginia.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: indicator, indicant, exponent, power, index finger, forefinger, index number, chapter, file, subscript, catalogue, catalog, addendum, number, sign, compendium
Translations
Every language
noun alphabetical listing of items
| Español | índice |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 색인 saegin |
| 日本語 | 索引 sakuin, インデックス indekkusu, 表題 hyōdai, 総目録 sōmokuroku |
| 中文 | 索引 suǒyǐn, 引得 yǐndé |
| हिन्दी | अनुक्रम anukram |
| Português | índice |
| Français | index |
| Deutsch | Index, Verzeichnis |
| Italiano | indice |
| Ελληνικά | κατάλογος katálogos, ευρετήριο evretírio, πίνακας pínakas |
| Română | index |
| Русский | указа́тель ukazátelʹ, и́ндекс índɛks |
| Tiếng Việt | chỉ số, chỉ mục |
| العربية | دَلِيل dalīl, فِهْرِس fihris |
| עברית | מפתח mafteakh |
noun index finger
| Español | índice |
|---|
noun sign, indication, token
| Ελληνικά | ένδειξη éndeixi |
|---|---|
| Русский | показа́тель pokazátelʹ, знак znak |
noun economics: single number calculated from an array of prices or quantities
| 中文 | 指數 /指数 zhǐshù |
|---|---|
| Français | indice |
| Italiano | indice |
| Ελληνικά | δείκτης deíktis |
| Русский | и́ндекс índɛks |
noun science: number representing a property or ratio
| Ελληνικά | συντελεστής syntelestís |
|---|---|
| Русский | коэффицие́нт koefficijént |
noun mathematics: raised suffix indicating a power
| Português | expoente |
|---|---|
| Ελληνικά | εκθέτης ekthétis |
| Русский | показа́тель сте́пени pokazátelʹ stépeni |
verb to arrange an index
| Español | indizar, indexar |
|---|---|
| Português | indexar |
| Français | indexer |
| Deutsch | indizieren |
| Italiano | indicizzare |
| Ελληνικά | καταλογογραφώ katalogografó |
| Русский | индекси́ровать indeksírovatʹ |
Talk about this word "index." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/index. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. index. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/index "index." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/index.Cite this
@misc{index_2026,
title = {index},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/index},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
