Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Serving to indicate.
  • adjective Grammar Of, relating to, or being the mood of the verb used in ordinary objective statements.
  • noun The indicative mood.
  • noun A verb in the indicative mood.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pointing out; bringing to notice; giving intimation or knowledge of something not visible or obvious; showing.
  • In grammar, noting that mode of the verb which indicates (that is, simply predicates or affirms), without any further modal implication: as, he writes; he is writing; they run; has the mail arrived?
  • noun In grammar, the indicative mode. See I., 2. Abbreviated indicative

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Gram.) The indicative mood.
  • adjective Pointing out; bringing to notice; giving intimation or knowledge of something not visible or obvious.
  • adjective (Fine Arts) Suggestive; representing the whole by a part, as a fleet by a ship, a forest by a tree, etc.
  • adjective (Gram.) that mood or form of the verb which indicates, that is, which simply affirms or denies or inquires

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective serving as a sign, indication or suggestion of something
  • adjective grammar of, or relating to the indicative mood
  • noun grammar the indicative mood

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (usually followed by `of') pointing out or revealing clearly
  • adjective relating to the mood of verbs that is used simple in declarative statements
  • noun a mood (grammatically unmarked) that represents the act or state as an objective fact

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin indicativus.

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Examples

Comments

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  • This word really gets me somehow. I love the way it sounds, and enunciating those two hard syllables in the middle always feels a little exciting and dangerous for me, like it is in danger of falling apart at the junction of those two syllables.

    March 14, 2008

  • Yes - so delicate - there's another!

    March 14, 2008