Ran into a grammar question today at work, and thought I'd post it for the grammar experts on the board. For the plural of index, Webster's lists both indexes and indices. Is there a correct time to use one or the other? The only answers I get from Google are on other boards, and the answers vary wildly. In my case, I used indexes to mean lists, but I remember using indices in math and programming in college.
I use indices to refer to points in an n-dimensional space. Indexes if I'm referring to, for instance, search indexes.
This is what I do, though I normally refer to points in n-dimensional space as coordinates. I guess it's settled, then. Thanks, Swoly!
These kinds of questions are dangerous...they'll end up going for 25 pages and feelings will get hurt.
Indexes if you're using it as a verb. ex: John indexes the files. Indices if it's used in plural noun form. ex: John organized the files according to their indices.
What about what Webster says in regards to being "plural" of the word "index"? Both are right, methinks. Your description of the usage as a verb is right, but that wasn't his initial question...
I was indicating for plural of index, I always use indices. That's how it's done in Latin, and indexes is just an incorrect spelling that eventually became commonplace and included in the dictionary. Other examples: normalcy. The only time I use indexes is if I'm referring to the present verb form of index, which I don't think I've ever done except in this thread. I have used the past tense form indexed rather frequently since I deal with databases quite a bit.
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According to Brian A. Gardner: a dictionary of Modern English usage, he prefers Indexes over Indices most of the time. He believes that Indices is pretentious, but does offer an an example of a less pretentious way of using it in the sense of "indicators." E.G.: Various indices, from satellite photos of crops in the third world .... make possible rough estimates .... Hope this helps.
What type of writer are you that you have to use such a pretentious-sounding word. I'll see your pretentiousness & raise you the fact that out of the countless literary fiction I've read, I've never once come across indices. Not even in the British literature, George Will.
