subscript

English

Etymology

sub- +‎ script

Noun

subscript (plural subscripts)

1. (typography) A type of lettering form written lower than the things around it.

   In chemical formulas the number of atoms in a molecule is written as a subscript, so we write H₂O for water which has two atoms of hydrogen for each one of oxygen.

2. (programming) An index into an array or hash.
   • 2012, Robert Robson, Using the STL: The C++ Standard Template Library, page 249:

     If the container is subscriptable and you remember the position where a particular piece of data was stored, you can use the subscript to efficiently retrieve the data.

Antonyms

• superscript

Derived terms

• iota subscript

 

Related terms

• script
• subscribe
• subscription

Translations

a type of lettering form

• Bulgarian: долен индекс m (dolen indeks)
• Catalan: subíndex (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 下標／下标 (xiàbiāo)

• Czech: dolní index m
• Finnish: alaindeksi (fi)
• French: indice (fr) m, lettre inférieure f
• German: Subskript n, Tiefstellung f, tiefgestelltes Zeichen n, tiefgestelltes Druckzeichen n, tiefstehendes Zeichen n
• Greek: δείκτης (el) m (deíktis)
• Hungarian: alsó index
• Irish: foscript f
• Italian: pedice m
• Japanese: 下付き (したつき, shitatsuki)
• Macedonian: индекс m (indeks), подзнак m (podznak)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: senket skrift

• Portuguese: subscrito (pt) m
• Russian: ни́жний и́ндекс m (nížnij índɛks), субскри́пт m (subskrípt)
• Slovak: dolný index m
• Spanish: subíndice (es) m

Verb

subscript (third-person singular simple present subscripts, present participle subscripting, simple past and past participle subscripted)

1. (mathematics, sciences, typography, transitive, of a variable) To provide with a subscript.
   • 1996, Nancy A. Lynch, Distributed Algorithms, Elsevier, page 210:

     As in the chapters on the synchronous model, we use the convention of subscripting a variable by the index of the process at which the variable resides.

   • 2011, William M. Davis (original author Cifford E. Dykstra), Physical Chemistry: A Modern Introduction (Second Edition), CRC Press, page 424:

     The elements of these matrices are subscripted with a row–column index, that is, with two integers that give the row and column position in the array.

2. (mathematics, sciences, typography, transitive, of a text) To convert to a subscript form.
   • 2007, Emily A. Vander Veer, PowerPoint 2007: The Missing Manual‎^[1]:

     If your presentation covers chemistry or some other scientific field, you'll need to subscript and superscript characters (think H2O).

3. (programming, transitive) To access (an array element) by its index.
   • 2005, Damian Conway, Perl Best Practices:

     Avoid subscripting arrays or hashes within loops.

Antonyms

• superscript

Adjective

subscript (not comparable)

1. Written underneath.

See also

• Appendix:Subscript
• superscribe