indexing

Meanings

1. 1noununcountable

   The work of making an alphabetical list of names and topics, with page numbers, so readers can find them in a book or collection.

   Grammar: Used without an article: indexing takes careful reading.

   Patterns

   • indexing of something
   • indexing a book

   Indexing a long textbook took the editor three weeks.

   She works in indexing for an academic publisher.

   Good indexing makes a reference book far more useful.

2. 2noununcountablecomputing

   In computing, the process of organizing data or web pages so that a search system can find them quickly.

   Grammar: Often appears with search engine or database: indexing speeds up queries.

   Patterns

   • database indexing
   • indexing of pages

   Database indexing cut the search time from minutes to seconds.

   The site was not showing in results because indexing had not finished.

   Search engines rely on indexing to build their lists of pages.

3. 3noununcountablefinance

   In finance, the practice of linking a payment or investment to a measure such as inflation or a market index.

   Grammar: Often followed by to or of: indexing of pensions to inflation.

   Patterns

   • indexing to something
   • index-linked

   Indexing of wages to inflation protected workers from rising prices.

   Many investors prefer indexing to picking individual stocks.

   The tax thresholds rise each year through automatic indexing.

Common combinations

database indexing

Database indexing makes large searches much faster.

automatic indexing

Automatic indexing saves the librarian hours of work.

search engine indexing

Search engine indexing can take several days for a new site.

indexing of something

The indexing of the archive is still unfinished.

index investing

Index investing is cheap because it needs little management.

Synonyms and how they differ

cataloguing

Cataloguing lists items in a collection with descriptions, while indexing points to where topics appear within them.

listing

Listing is a looser word for writing items in order and does not suggest searchable page references.

classification

Classification sorts items into categories, whereas indexing makes each item easy to locate.

Word family

index noun

an ordered list used to find things

index verb

to make or add to an index

indexer noun

a person who makes indexes

indexed adjective

listed in an index

reindex verb

to index again

Commonly confused: indexing or indexation?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “indexing”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words