subscript

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English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

From sub- +‎ script.

Pronunciation

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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

Derived terms

Translations

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

Adjective

subscript (not comparable)

  1. Written underneath.

See also

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia