indicative.

1. Giving an indication of a condition or tendency without necessarily proving it.

2. Relating to the verb mood ordinarily used for factual statements and questions.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• indicative of change
• indicative evidence

On the page

The pattern is indicative of strain but not conclusive.

Usage notes

Primary category: analysis / argumentation / evidence. Forms: Normally non-gradable; no ordinary comparative or superlative. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: evidence, inference, qualification. Commonness: moderately common.