indication
Pluralindications
- 1A fact serving as evidence for something's existence or possible occurrence.
Rising unemployment figures were taken as an indication of a coming recession.
Falling temperatures gave the first indication that winter had arrived early.
Note
Here the word turns from the gesture to the clue, and this is its everyday meaning. Two constructions carry most of the weight: there is no indication that…, and all the indications point to…, plural when clues pile up. Addison, in The Guardian of 1713, writes of "plain indications of their weariness," with the of-phrase naming what is revealed. Symptom and evidence sit close beside it.
- 2The act of pointing something out or making it known.
A slight nod was his only indication that the meeting had begun.
The teacher's indication toward the map directed everyone's attention.
Note
The oldest shape of the word sits here: Latin indicātiō, "a showing," from indicō, "point out," the verb behind indicate. The noun names the act itself, a nod or a gesture, rather than the thing revealed. It pairs naturally with a possessive (his only indication, her indication). The Latin also meant "valuation," a strand none of the English meanings keeps.
- 3
- 4A symptom or condition that points to the right treatment, or the medical reason for using a particular test, drug, or procedure.
Persistent joint swelling is a common indication for this anti-inflammatory drug.
Surgeons review each indication carefully before recommending an operation.
Oppositecontraindication
Note
Clinicians speak of an indication for a drug or procedure, and regulators decide which ones count. A drug's approved indications are the conditions it is licensed to treat. Prescribing it for anything else is an off-label indication, and the same condition can fall on different sides of that line in different countries. An older idiom treats the indication as a demand to be answered: a 1900 Massachusetts Medical Journal doctor "meets" it with calomel.
- 5A declared estimate of the price at which a security is likely to begin trading.
The pre-opening indication suggested the shares would start well above yesterday's close.
Brokers adjusted their orders after the exchange revised its price indication.
Note
On an exchange, the figure is a signal, not a trade. An indication is published before the opening so that brokers can see roughly where a security will start and adjust their orders. It can be revised before trading begins. That is why it often travels with words like pre-opening or price indication, and why it should never be quoted as though it were an actual opening price.
Less common meanings
- 6
- 7An explanation; an open display or setting-forth of something.
For the indication either proceeds from one experiment to another; or else from experiments to axioms; which axioms themselves suggest new experiments.
1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: Or a Natural HistoryNote
An older, broader use, now gone, in which the word meant a setting-forth. Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum (1627) has the indication proceeding "from experiments to axioms." A narrower relative held on in instrument talk: the House Documents of 1870 record a saccharometer's "first indication" and "last indication," meaning its readings. For an explanation today, choose explanation or account instead.
Practice
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Origin
From Old French indication, from Latin indicātiō ("a showing, a valuation"), from indicō ("to point out, indicate, show"). By surface analysis, indicate + -ion.