Index Number ˈɪndeks Book Price Author Subject Library

• look it up in the index.
• author and subject indexes are available on a library database.
• the cost-of-living index
• the dow jones index fell 15 points this morning.

index

1. a list of names or topics that are referred to in a book, etc., usually arranged at the end of a book in alphabetical order or listed in a separate file or book
• Look it up in the index.
• Author and subject indexes are available on a library database.
• = card index
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/card-index
2. a system that shows the level of prices and wages, etc. so that they can be compared with those of a previous date
• the cost-of-living index
• The Dow Jones index fell 15 points this morning.
• stock-market indices
• house price indexes
3. a sign or measure that something else can be judged by
• The number of new houses being built is a good index of a country's prosperity.
4. the small number written above a larger number to show how many times that number must be multiplied by itself. In the equation 42 = 16, the number 2 is an index.
• See related entries: Mathematical terminology
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/topic/mathematical_terminology/index_2

Extra Examples

• Although the book was devoted to cancer, the word ‘cancer’ did not even appear in the index.
• Inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, is expected to drop.
• Is there any reference to it in the index?
• It’s a general index to the whole work.
• Look up ‘The Waste Land’ in the index.
• Most commodity funds track a specific commodity index.
• Search the index to find the address of the data file.
• The Morgan Stanley Cyclical index posted a small advance.
• The NYSE Financial index gained 20%.
• The commodities index fell 3.1%.
• The company is listed on the Nasdaq technology stocks index.
• The hundred shares index closed down 15 points.
• The increase in our standard rates will be linked to the consumer price index.
• The index only gives the main towns.
• The index was calculated with a computer.
• The price index is published monthly.
• The test results were used as an index of language proficiency.
• The topic I was interested in didn’t appear in the index.
• Those who lived in the inner cities had a high index of deprivation.
• We keep a card index of all the titles on the shelves.
• Why don’t you look up her name in the index?
• a 28.2 point drop in the FT-SE 100 index
• a general index calculated from death and population information
• an index based on incidents causing a loss of production
• an index covering some 1 700 companies
• an index designed to measure changes in the volume of industrial production
• cards in a card index
• dividends on shares in the index
• index-linked pensions
• people dealing in options on the FT-SE 100 index
• Author and subject indexes are available on the library database.
• His brother’s name doesn’t even appear in the index.
• His novels were put on the index of banned books.
• The detailed index lists all the historical characters referred to in the book.

Word Origin

• late Middle English: from Latin index, indic- ‘forefinger, informer, sign’, from in- ‘towards’ + a second element related to dicere ‘say’ or dicare ‘make known’; compare with indicate. The original sense ‘index finger’ (the finger with which one points), came to mean ‘pointer’ (late 16th cent.), and figuratively something that serves to point to a fact or conclusion; hence a list of topics in a book (“pointing” to their location).