subscript

subscript

English

Etymology

sub- +‎ script

Noun

subscript (plural subscripts)

1. (typography) A type of lettering form written lower than the things around it.

   In chemical formulas the number of atoms in a molecule is written as a subscript, so we write H₂O for water which has two atoms of hydrogen for each one of oxygen.

2. (programming) An index into an array or hash.
   • 2012, Robert Robson, Using the STL: The C++ Standard Template Library (page 249)

     If the container is subscriptable and you remember the position where a particular piece of data was stored, you can use the subscript to efficiently retrieve the data.

Antonyms

• superscript

Related terms

• script
• subscribe
• subscription

Translations

a type of lettering form

Bulgarian: долен индекс m (dolen indeks) Catalan: subíndex (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 下標／下标 (xiàbiāo) Czech: dolní index m Finnish: alaindeksi (fi) French: indice (fr) m, lettre inférieure f German: Subskript n, Tiefstellung f, tiefgestelltes Zeichen n, tiefgestelltes Druckzeichen n, tiefstehendes Zeichen n Greek: δείκτης (el) m (deíktis) Hungarian: alsó index Irish: foscript f Italian: pedice m Japanese: 下付き (したつき, shitatsuki) Macedonian: индекс m (indeks), подзнак m (podznak) Norwegian: Bokmål: senket skrift Portuguese: subscrito (pt) m Russian: ни́жний и́ндекс m (nížnij índɛks), субскри́пт m (subskrípt) Slovak: dolný index m Spanish: subíndice (es) m

Verb

subscript (third-person singular simple present subscripts, present participle subscripting, simple past and past participle subscripted)

1. (mathematics, sciences, typography, transitive, of a variable) To provide with a subscript.
   • 1996, Nancy A. Lynch, Distributed Algorithms, Elsevier, page 210:

     As in the chapters on the synchronous model, we use the convention of subscripting a variable by the index of the process at which the variable resides.

   • 2011, William M. Davis (original author Cifford E. Dykstra), Physical Chemistry: A Modern Introduction (Second Edition), CRC Press, page 424:

     The elements of these matrices are subscripted with a row–column index, that is, with two integers that give the row and column position in the array.

2. (mathematics, sciences, typography, transitive, of a text) To convert to a subscript form.
   • 2007, Emily A. Vander Veer, PowerPoint 2007: The Missing Manual‎:

     If your presentation covers chemistry or some other scientific field, you'll need to subscript and superscript characters (think H2O).

3. (programming, transitive) To access (an array element) by its index.
   • 2005, Damian Conway, Perl Best Practices

     Avoid subscripting arrays or hashes within loops.

Antonyms

• superscript

Adjective

subscript (not comparable)

1. Written underneath.

See also

• Appendix:Subscript
• superscribe