Indicator

How to spell indicator

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce indicator

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does indicator mean?

1. nounA thing, sign, reading or measurement that shows the state or level of something.
2. nounThe flashing light on a vehicle used to show an intended turn or lane change.
3. nounA substance that changes colour to reveal the acidity, alkalinity or presence of a chemical.

Indicator in a sentence

• The fuel indicator on the dashboard dropped close to empty.

• He forgot to switch on his indicator before turning into the side road.

• Litmus is a common indicator that turns red in acid and blue in alkali.

• Unemployment is a key economic indicator that analysts watch each month.

• The left indicator clicked steadily as she waited to pull out.

• The students added a few drops of universal indicator to the solution.

Where does indicator come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin indicare, which meant 'to point out' or 'to make known', built from the prefix in- ('towards') and dicare ('to proclaim or point out'), a relative of dicere 'to say'. Latin formed the agent noun indicator for a person or thing that points something out, and English took the word up in the 1600s, at first for a person who reveals or shows something. Over time the meaning settled on objects and signs that display information, such as gauges, dials and statistics. The same dic root sits inside familiar words like 'dictate', 'predict' and 'indicate', all of which involve saying or pointing out. The spelling trap is the ending: it is the Latin agent suffix -or, not the more common English -er, so it is 'indicator' and never 'indicater'.

How the word is built

• in- (towards)
• dic (from dicare: to point out, proclaim)
• -ate (verb)
• -or (agent noun: thing that does)