/ˈɪndɛks/, /ˈɪndɛks/, [ˈɪndæks]
OriginFrom Latin index (“a discoverer, informer, spy; of things, an indicator, the forefinger, a title, superscription”), from indicō (“point out, show”); see indicate.
- 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.”
“He isn't able to find the index of the book.”
- The index finger; the forefinger.
- A movable finger on a gauge, scale, etc.
- A symbol resembling a pointing hand, used to direct particular attention to a note or paragraph.
- That which points out; that which shows, indicates, manifests, or discloses.
“Tastes are the Indexes of the different Qualities of Plants.”
- A sign; an indication; a token.
“His son's empty guffaws […] struck him with pain as the indices of a weak mind.”
“Their use of these words as epithets is an index of an appallingly low level of feminist awareness.”
- 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.
- especiallyAn 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.”
- obsoleteA prologue indicating what follows.
“Ay me, what act, that roars so loud and thunders in the index?”
- transitiveTo 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 thr”
- transitiveTo 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.
- transitiveTo use a mechanism to move an object to a precise location.
- 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.
Formsindexes(plural) · indices(plural) · index's(obsolete, plural) · indexes(present, singular, third-person) · indexing(participle, present) · indexed(participle, past) · indexed(past)