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indicative

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

About the mood of verbs that is used simple in declarative statements.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihndikuhtiv

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪnˈdɪkətɪv

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. grammar

    Relating to the mood of verbs that is used simple in declarative statements

  2. grammar

    Of, or relating to the indicative mood.

  3. Serving as a sign, indication or suggestion of something.

noun

  1. grammaruncountable

    A mood (grammatically unmarked) that represents the act or state as an objective fact

  2. grammarcountable

    A term in the indicative mood.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Relating to the mood of verbs that is used simple in declarative statements

Used this way, indicative is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a grammar or language-study use: it describes how language works, so it appears in teaching and reference writing.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Academic writing
  • Education/classroom
  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use indicative

  • “Rising prices are indicative of inflation in the economy.”adjective

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: relating to the mood of verbs that is used simple in declarative statements

suggestive

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.