Indicant

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A sign, symptom, or piece of evidence that points to or reveals the presence of something else
2. A representative detail or characteristic that suggests or signifies a specific condition or outcome
3. A marker or clue that indicates the existence or condition of another element or phenomenon

Etymology: "Indicant" is a noun meaning a sign of something, and it reached English by way of Latin "indicans", the present participle of "indicare", "to point out or make known." The root is "index", "a pointer" (the same word that gave us the finger of a clock or the index of a book), so an indicant is literally something that points toward a condition or fact. The word's modern life is mostly technical. In medicine and chemistry it names a substance or signal that reveals the presence or state of something, such as an indicator dye that changes colour to show acidity. Its everyday cousin "indication" has the same Latin ancestry but is far more common, and "indicant" has stayed a narrower, more specialised term.

Synonyms: indicator, sign, signal, mark, pointer

Antonyms: concealer, obscurer, disguiser, suppressor, denier