indicator
noun
Simple meaning
A meter or gauge.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
induhkayterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɪndəkeɪtɚ
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A pointer or index that indicates something.
A bird, the honeyguide.
The needle or dial on such a meter.
A meter or gauge.
ecology
A plant or animal whose presence is indicative of some specific environment.
A signal for attracting attention
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A pointer or index that indicates something.
Used this way, indicator is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- indicant , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use indicator
- “The fuel indicator light came on, so we needed gas.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A mood (grammatically unmarked) that represents the act or state as an objective fact.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Indicator consisting of a light to indicate whether power is on or a motor is in operation.
A navigational instrument based on a gyroscope.
An indicator of the amount of fuel remaining in a vehicle.
An indicator used in reactions that involve precipitation.
One of 11 indicators for different sections of the economy.
The theory that all indicators are either weak acids or weak bases in which the color of the ionized form is different from the color before dissociation.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: pointer or index that indicates something
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.