indicate
/ˈɪndɪˌkeɪt/verb
indicate is spelled I-N-D-I-C-A-T-E: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 3,939th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, indicate means “To point out; to discover; to direct to a knowledge of; to show; to make known” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in indicate?
| Letters | 8: I-N-D-I-C-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 22 times per million words; the 3,939th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is indicate?
Indicate appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 3,939th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce indicate?
- /ˈɪndɪˌkeɪt/
Indicate has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-indicate.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with indicate?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as indicate.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: actinide.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of indicate
- indicates present, singular, he/she/it
- indicating participle, present
- indicated participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does indicate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To point out; to discover; to direct to a knowledge of; to show; to make known.
The guard blew his whistle to indicate imminent departure.
- 2
To show or manifest by symptoms.
Near-synonym: suggest
- 3
To point to as the proper remedies.
Near-synonym: warrant
- 4
To signal in a vehicle the desire to turn right or left.
- 5
To investigate the condition or power of, as of steam engine, by means of an indicator.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate indicate?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of indicate: ind..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Indicate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | indiquer, signaler |
| German | anzeigen, anweisen, andeuten , auf etwas deuten |
| Portuguese | indicar |
| Spanish | indicar , señalizar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does indicate come from?
Borrowed from Latin indicātus, perfect passive participle of indicō (“to point out, indicate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- (“in, to”) + dicō (“to declare, (originally) to point”). See also diction and index.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).