Indexical

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An indexical term.

    "So even with indexicals, there is a Sinn for every meaning."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, pertaining to, or like, an index; having the form of an index.
  2. 2
    Having or imparting a meaning, or signifying a referent, that changes according to context.

    "In order that they might represent the worlds of experience and imagination, such symbols have to be put together with ‘indexical’ signs, as Peirce termed them, such as articles (the, some), demonstratives (this, those), tense-inflections (walk-s, walk-ed), moods (may/might walk, shall/should walk) etc."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to or serving as an index wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
indexal

Example

More examples

"In order that they might represent the worlds of experience and imagination, such symbols have to be put together with ‘indexical’ signs, as Peirce termed them, such as articles (the, some), demonstratives (this, those), tense-inflections (walk-s, walk-ed), moods (may/might walk, shall/should walk) etc."

Etymology

From index + -ical.

More for "indexical"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.