index

1. Something that serves to guide, point out, or otherwise facilitate reference, especially:
   1. An alphabetized list of names, places, and subjects treated in a printed work, giving the page or pages on which each item is mentioned.
   2. A thumb index.
   3. A table, file, or catalog.
   4. Computer Science. A list of keywords associated with a record or document, used especially as an aid in searching for information.
2. Something that reveals or indicates; a sign: "Her face . . . was a fair index to her disposition" (Samuel Butler).
3. A character (☞) used in printing to call attention to a particular paragraph or section. Also called fist, hand.
4. An indicator or pointer, as on a scientific instrument.
5. 1. Mathematics. A number or symbol, often written as a subscript or superscript to a mathematical expression, that indicates an operation to be performed, an ordering relation, or a use of the associated expression.
   2. A number derived from a formula, used to characterize a set of data.
6. A number that represents the change in price or value of an aggregate of goods, services, wages, or other measurable quantity in comparison with a reference number for a previous period of time.
7. Index Roman Catholic Church. A list formerly published by Church authority, restricting or forbidding the reading of certain books.

1. To furnish with an index: index a book.
2. To enter in an index.
3. To indicate or signal.
4. To adjust through indexation.

[Middle English, forefinger, from Latin.]

Refers to words that are turned into a list of words and pointers. When an individual book or document is indexed, important words and word phrases are determined and made into a keyword list. That list is matched against all the pages. When there is a match, that page number is added to the appropriate word or word phrase in the keyword list, which is sorted alphabetically and placed at the end of the book or document.

When multiple documents are indexed as a group, all important words on every page wind up as pointers to those documents in indexes for that word or word phrase. For example, if document abc.doc contains the word "computer," abc.doc is added to the "computer" index. For general documents, keyword lists are generally exclusionary, which means every word is indexed except for numerous common words such as "and," "the," "this," "to," "for" and "that."

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noun

Something visible or evident that gives grounds for believing in the existence or presence of something else: badge, evidence, indication, indicator, manifestation, mark, note, sign, signification, stamp, symptom, token, witness. See show/hide.

Definition: arrange, order
Antonyms: disarrange, disorder, disorganize

index (plural ‐dices or ‐dexes), in the semiotics of the American philosopher C. S. Peirce, a sign that is connected to its object by a concrete relationship, usually of cause and effect. A finger or signpost pointing to an object or place is indexal; so, in more clearly causal ways, are many kinds of symptom, mark, or trace: scars, footprints, crumpled bedclothes etc. Thus smoke may be seen as an index of fire. Peirce distinguished the index from two other kinds of sign: the icon and the symbol.

A book containing references, alphabetically arranged, to the contents of a series or collection of documents or volumes; or a section (normally at the end) of a single volume or set of volumes containing such references to its contents.

Statistical indexes are also used to track or measure changes in the economy (for example, the Consumer Price Index) and movement in stock markets (for example, Standard & Poor's Index). Such indexes are usually keyed to a base year, month, or other period of comparison.

In mortgage financing, the term is used to determine adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) interest rates after the discount period ends. Common indexes for ARMs are one-year Treasury securities and the national average cost of funds to savings and loan associations.

An alphabetical list of subjects treated in a book. It usually appears at the end of the book and identifies page numbers on which information about each subject appears.

Pl. indexes, indices [L.] the numerical ratio of measurement of any part in comparison with a fixed standard.

• i. case — the first case of a disease in a group to be brought to the attention of the clinician.
• Color I. — a publication of the Society of Dyers and Colorists and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, containing an extensive list of dyes and dye intermediates. Each chemically distinct compound is identified by a specific number, the CI number, avoiding the confusion of trivial names used for dyes in the dye industry. The Royal Horticultural Society, London, produces a similar document to aid in the identification of flower colors.
• erythrocyte i's — see erythrocyte indices.
• I. Medicus — a monthly publication of the National Library of Medicine, in which the world's leading biomedical literature is indexed by author and subject.
• opsonic i. — a measure of opsonic activity determined by the ratio of the number of microorganisms phagocytized by normal leukocytes in the presence of serum from an animal infected by the microorganism, to the number phagocytized in serum from a normal animal.
• phagocytic i. — the average number of bacteria ingested per leukocyte of the patient's blood.
• production i. — a method of expressing production compared with a potential or target.
• refractive i. — the refractive power of a medium compared with that of air (assumed to be 1).
• therapeutic i. — originally, the ratio of the maximum tolerated dose to the minimum curative dose; now defined as the ratio of the median lethal dose (LD₅₀) to the median effective dose (ED₅₀). It is used in assessing the safety of a drug.
• I. Veterinarius — a periodic listing of all publications in the veterinary literature by the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, United Kingdom. Also available on on-line data search.
• vital i. — the ratio of births to deaths within a given time in a population.

If you're looking for the main index page of Wikipedia, see Portal:Contents. For the alphabetical index, see Portal:Contents/Quick index. For the Wikipedia editor's aid, see Wikipedia:Editor's index to Wikipedia.

Look up index in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

An index is a system used to make finding information easier.

Index may also refer to:

• Index (publishing), a detailed list, usually arranged alphabetically, of the specific information in a publication
• Index cards in a rolodex or old library card catalog, early and mid 20th century technologies for maintaining such lists
• Index (mathematics), for various meanings of the word in mathematics
• Index (economics), a single number calculated from an array of prices and quantities.
  • Price index, a typical price for some good or service
  • Operating Index, a tool to compare the operating performance of a company with its peer universe
• Index, Washington, a town in Snohomish County, Washington, United States
• Index, New York, a hamlet in the County and Town of Otsego, New York, United States
• Index (typography), a largely obsolete punctuation mark
• Indexing (motion), a kind of motion in many areas of mechanical engineering and machining

Publications:

• Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of publications which the Catholic Church censored
• Germany's List of Media Harmful to Young People, colloquially known as The Index, published by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien
• Index Magazine, was a prominent New York City based publication for art and culture
• Truman State University Index, the weekly student newspaper
• The Index, the student newspaper of Kalamazoo College, published since 1877
• The Index (journal), a European propaganda journal created by Henry Hotze to support the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War
• index.hu, a prominent news and community portal in Hungarian
• To Aru Majutsu no Index, a Japanese light novel, manga, and anime series

In computers and information retrieval:

• Index (database), a feature in a computerized database which allows quick access to the rows in a table
• Index (information technology), either an integer which identifies an array element, or a data structure which enables fast lookup
• Index (search engine), for supporting information retrieval in search engines
• Webserver directory index, a default or index web page in a directory on a web server, such as index.html
• Subject indexing, describing the content of a document by keywords
• BitTorrent index, a list of .torrent files available for searches

Other:

• The Index, an item on the Halo (megastructure) in the Halo series of video games
• The Index (Dubai), a tower under construction in Dubai
• Index (retailer), a defunct UK catalogue retailer formerly owned by the Littlewoods group and known as Littlewoods Index
• Index finger, the second digit of a human hand
• Index fund, a collective investment scheme
• Indexicality, in linguistics, the variation of meaning of an utterance according to certain features of the context in which it is uttered

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - indeks, indholdsfortegnelse, kartotek, register, pegefinger, pristal, indekstal
v. tr. - indeksere, forsyne med indholdsfortegnelse, føre kartotek over

idioms:

• index card    indekskort, kartotekskort
• index finger    pegefinger

Nederlands (Dutch)
index, register, aanwijzing, wijzer, catalogus, indexeren, een index maken, duiden op

Français (French)
n. - (Imprim) index, catalogue, (Math) exposant, indice, (Écon, Fin) indice, (Phys) indice, répertoire, (Comput) index, (Aut) numéro d'immatriculation
v. tr. - classer, cataloguer, (Écon, Fin) indexer, (Comput) indexer

idioms:

• index card    fiche
• index finger    index

Deutsch (German)
n. - Register, Verzeichnis, Index, Zeiger, Hinweis, Exponent
v. - mit einem Register versehen, ins Register aufnehmen

idioms:

• index card    Karteikarte
• index finger    Zeigefinger

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - δείκτης, ευρετήριο, πίνακας, κατάλογος, (μαθημ.) εκθέτης, ίντεξ (κατάλογος απαγορευμένων βιβλίων από την Καθολική Εκκλησία), (Η/Υ) (αριθμ)ευρετήριο
v. - ευρετηριάζω

idioms:

• index card    κάρτα ευρετηρίου
• index finger    (ανατ.) δείκτης

Italiano (Italian)
comporre un'indice, rubrica, indice

idioms:

• index finger    indice

Português (Portuguese)
n. - índice (m)
v. - indexar

idioms:

• index finger    dedo (m) indicador

Русский (Russian)
индекс, показатель, стрелка (весов), снабжать индексом

idioms:

• index finger    указательный палец

Español (Spanish)
n. - ficha, índice, indicio, señal, prueba, indicador, manecilla
v. tr. - poner índice a, indexar, indicar, ser indicio de

idioms:

• index card    ficha, tarjeta índice
• index finger    dedo índice

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - pekfinger, visare, register, indicium, mätare, index (äv. matem.), exponent (matem.)
v. - förse med register, katalogisera, indexreglera (ekon.), sätta på index

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
索引, 指数, 指针, 编入索引中, 指出

idioms:

• index card    索引卡
• index finger    食指

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 索引, 指數, 指標
v. tr. - 編入索引中, 指出

idioms:

• index card    索引卡
• index finger    食指

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 색인, 지표, 지수
v. tr. - 색인을 붙이다, ~의 지수가 되다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 索引, カード索引, 指示するもの, 指針, 指印, 指数
v. - 索引を付ける, 索引に載せる

idioms:

• index card    索引カード
• index finger    人差し指

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) كشاف, فهرس, (فعل) يفهرس,‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מפתח, אינדקס, מדד, אות, עדות, דבר שמצביעים עליו, הצבעה על, מחוג, קריאה של מכשיר מדידה, חזקה של מספר, רשימה אלפביתית של נושאים עם ציון מיקומם בספר, מפתח נושאים בו כל נושא רשום על כרטיס נפרד, ערך המצביע על מגמה, נטייה וכו'‬
v. tr. - ‮ערך מפתח (בספר), כלל ברשימה, קשר (את המשכורת) לגובה המחי‬

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