indication

plural indications

1. countableuncountableAn act of pointing out or indicating.
2. countableuncountableA fact that shows that something exists or may happen.

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

   4 more examples

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

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

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

   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.

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

   We turn briefly to ME /ɛː/ and /ɔː/. There is little or no indication of change for most of the sixteenth century; Bellot’s ME /ɛː/ has ‘the mouth halfe open’, which does not suggest anything closer than [ɛː], other French and German writers give similar descriptions.

   1999, Roger Lass, “Phonology and morphology”, in The Cambridge History of the English Language, volume III, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 84

   Synonyms: symptom, evidence, tip-off

3. countablerareuncountableA mark or another symbol used to represent something.

   Synonyms: mark, token, sign

4. countableuncountableA discovery made; information.
5. countableobsoleteuncountableAn explanation; a display.

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

   1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: Or a Natural History, in Ten Centuries

   2 more examples

   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

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

   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.

   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

6. countableuncountablemedicineAny 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.

   3 more examples

   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.

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

   1900, Massachusetts Medical Journal, page 460

7. countableuncountablebusinessA declared approximation of the price at which a traded security is likely to commence trading.