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index term

index term noun: a term associated with particular documents in an index used for document retrieval; typically, a term that captures the essential meaning of a document.

Noun

index term (plural index terms)

  1. A term associated with particular documents in an index used for document retrieval; typically, a term that captures the essential meaning of a document.
    • This includes a term dictionary that provides for each allowable index term a pointer giving the addresses of the document lists in the term index for the corresponding term; […]1988, Gerard Salton, “Computer-Based Text Retrieval”, in Allen Kent, James G. Williams, editors, Encyclopedia of Microcomputers, volume 3, →ISBN, page 89
    • If the indexing is being performed automatically, by an algorithm, there is consistency in the index term selection process.1997, Gerald J. Kowalski, Information Retrieval Systems: Theory and Implementation, →ISBN, pages 55–56
    Synonyms:
    descriptor

Synonyms of index term

Forms of index term

pluralindex terms

Questions about index term

What does index term mean?
Index term means a term associated with particular documents in an index used for document retrieval; typically, a term that captures the essential meaning of a document.
What part of speech is index term?
Index term is a noun.
What is the plural of index term?
The plural of index term is index terms.

Words near index term in the dictionary

  1. index patients
  2. index register
  3. index registers
  4. index rerum
  5. index rerums
  6. index term
  7. index terms
  8. index verborum
  9. index's
  10. index-linked
  11. indexability

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: index term (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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