index

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   adjust through indexation

   The government indexes wages and prices

2. 2
   verb

   provide with an index

   index the book

3. 3
   noun

   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.

4. 4
   noun

   That which points out; that which shows, indicates, manifests, or discloses.

   Tastes are the Indexes of the different Qualities of Plants.

5. 5
   noun

   A sign; an indication; a token.

   His son's empty guffaws […] struck him with pain as the indices of a weak mind.

6. 6
   noun

   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.

7. 7
   noun

   The number of cosets that exist.

   The index of 2ℤ in ℤ is 2.

8. 8
   noun

   A prologue indicating what follows.

   Ay me, what act, that roars so loud and thunders in the index?

Etymology

From Latin index (“a discoverer, informer, spy; of things, an indicator, the forefinger, a title, superscription”), from indicō (“point out, show”); see indicate.