indication

English

Etymology

From Old French indication, from Latin indicātiō (“a showing, indicating the value of something; valuation”), from indicō (“point out, indicate, show; value”); see indicate; confer French indication, Spanish indicación, Italian indicazione. Morphologically indicate +‎ -ion

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

indication (countable and uncountable, plural indications)

1. Act of pointing out or indicating.
2. That which serves to indicate or point out; mark; token; sign; symptom; evidence.

   There's no indication that the fire was caused by criminals.

   All the indications point to drink-driving as the cause of the accident.

   • September 9, 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian volume 156

     The frequent stops they make in the most convenient places are plain indications of their weariness.

   • 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Francesca Carrara, volume 2, page 274:

     Her shrewd eye, accustomed to note the slightest indications, had already marked their likeness to each other, and that ease of affection which belongs to habit and relationship.

3. Discovery made; information.
4. (obsolete) Explanation; display.
   • 1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: Or a Natural History, in Ten Centuries:

     For the indication either proceeds from one experiment to another; or else from experiments to axioms; which axioms themselves suggest new experiments.

   • 1870, USA House of Representatives, House Documents - Volume 12; Volume 265, page 124:

     The committee, unknown to the workmen, also followed the next or succeeding mash, which was better made, and obtained the following results: First indication of the saccharometer .. 7⅘ degrees. Last indication of the saccharometer ... 1

   • 1896, United States. Patent Office, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, page 874:

     In an electrical anunciator the combindation with a plurality of indicators of all operative conjointly and simultaneously by any one of several circuit closers and adapted to give a combined indication, of the automatic means for holding the circuit closed until all of the indicators in the circuit have made their indications, and then resetting the operated circuit closer ready for another operation.

5. (medicine) Any symptom or occurrence in a disease, which serves to direct to suitable remedies.
   • 1900, Massachusetts Medical Journal:

     The first indication he meets by a dose of calomel, 1o to .30 gm., followed, if necessary, by magnesium sulphate in boiled water.

6. (finance) An declared approximation of the price at which a traded security is likely to commence trading.

Derived terms

• counterindication
• geographical indication
• indicational
• signal indication

 

Related terms

• index
• indicate
• indicator
• indicative

Translations

that which serves to indicate or point out

• Armenian: հայտանիշ (hy) (haytaniš)
• Bulgarian: указание (bg) n (ukazanie), показание (bg) n (pokazanie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 指示 (zh) (zhǐshì)

• French: indication (fr) f
• Gothic: 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃 f (taikns), 𐌱𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍅𐌰 f (bandwa)
• Greek:

  Ancient: σημεῖον n (sēmeîon), τεκμήριον n (tekmḗrion)

• Hebrew: סימן‎ (he) m (simán), עות‎ (he) m (ot)
• Latin: index c, specimen n
• Maori: tūtohi, tūtohu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: indikasjon (no) m, mål (no) n

  Nynorsk: indikasjon m

• Plautdietsch: Aundiedunk f
• Scottish Gaelic: fios m
• Spanish: indicación (es) f
• Tocharian B: ṣotri

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: aanwijzing f (2)

Further reading

• indication in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• indication in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

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French

Etymology

From Latin indicātiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.di.ka.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

indication f (plural indications)

1. direction, instruction
2. indication, sign
3. indication, information
4. a hint

Related terms

• indiquer

Further reading

• “indication” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).