indication

From Old French indication, from Latin indicātiō (“a showing, indicating the value of something; valuation”), from indicō (“point out, indicate, show; value”); see indicate; compare French indication, Spanish indicación, Italian indicazione. Morphologically indicate +‎ -ion

• IPA^(key): /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

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indication (countable and uncountable, plural indications)

1. Act of pointing out or indicating.
2. A fact that shows that something exists or may happen.

   Synonyms: symptom, evidence

   There's no indication that the fire was caused by criminals.

   All the indications point to drink-driving as the cause of the accident.

   • September 9, 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian volume 156

     The frequent stops they make in the most convenient places are plain indications of their weariness.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 274:

     Her shrewd eye, accustomed to note the slightest indications, had already marked their likeness to each other, and that ease of affection which belongs to habit and relationship.

3. (rare) A mark or another symbol used to represent something.

   Synonyms: mark, token, sign

4. Discovery made; information.
5. (obsolete) Explanation; display.
   • 1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: Or a Natural History, in Ten Centuries:

     For the indication either proceeds from one experiment to another; or else from experiments to axioms; which axioms themselves suggest new experiments.

   • 1870, USA House of Representatives, House Documents - Volume 12; Volume 265, page 124:

     The committee, unknown to the workmen, also followed the next or succeeding mash, which was better made, and obtained the following results: First indication of the saccharometer .. 7⅘ degrees. Last indication of the saccharometer ... 1

   • 1895 November 5, “549,241. Electrical annunciator. Robert L. Hunter, Minneapolis, Minn. Filed Feb. 3, 1894. Serial No. 499,035. (No model.)”, in The Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, volume 73, number 6, Washington: Government Publishing Office, page 874:

     In an electrical anunciator the combination with a plurality of indicators all operative conjointly and simultaneously by any one of several circuit closers and adapted to give a combined indication, of the automatic means for holding the circuit closed until all of the indicators in the circuit have made their indications, and then resetting the operated circuit closer ready for another operation.

7. (medicine) Any symptom or occurrence in a disease that serves to direct to suitable remedies; the problem that warrants and prompts the use of a diagnostic test, imaging mode, or treatment (e.g., medication, surgical procedure).

   Influenza and suspected influenza are FDA-approved indications for oseltamivir.

   In the United States, major depressive disorder is an off-label indication for clomipramine, but in various other countries, it is an approved indication.

   The theme of treatment failure of previous treatments plus continuing impairment (pain and poor function) appears among the indications for many types of joint replacement surgery.

   • 1900, Massachusetts Medical Journal, page 460:

     The first indication he meets by a dose of calomel, 1o to .30 gm., followed, if necessary, by magnesium sulphate in boiled water.

8. (finance) An declared approximation of the price at which a traded security is likely to commence trading.

• index
• indicate
• indicator
• indicative

• “indication”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “indication”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

From Latin indicātiōnem. By surface analysis, indiquer +‎ -ation.

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.di.ka.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

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indication f (plural indications)

1. direction, instruction

   Synonyms: enseignement, instruction

2. indication, sign

   Synonym: signe

3. indication, information

   Synonyms: information, renseignement

4. a hint

• indiquer

• “indication”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.