Index vs. Inventory — What's the Difference?

An alphabetized list of names, places, and subjects treated in a printed work, giving the page or pages on which each item is mentioned.

Inventory (American English) or stock (British English) refers to the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate goal of resale, production or utilisation.Inventory management is a discipline primarily about specifying the shape and placement of stocked goods. It is required at different locations within a facility or within many locations of a supply network to precede the regular and planned course of production and stock of materials.

A thumb index.

A detailed, itemized list, report, or record of things in one's possession, especially a periodic survey of all goods and materials in stock.

A table, file, or catalog.

The process of making such a list, report, or record.

(Computers) A list of keywords associated with a record or document, used especially as an aid in searching for information.

The items listed in such a report or record.

Something that reveals or indicates; a sign

The quantity of goods and materials on hand; stock.

A character (☞) used in printing to call attention to a particular paragraph or section. Also called hand.

An evaluation or a survey, as of abilities, assets, or resources.

An indicator or pointer, as on a scientific instrument.

To make an itemized report or record of.

(Mathematics) A number or symbol, often written as a subscript or superscript to a mathematical expression, that indicates an operation to be performed, an ordering relation, or a use of the associated expression.

To include in an itemized report or record.

A number derived from a formula, used to characterize a set of data.

(operations) The stock of an item on hand at a particular location or business.

A statistical value that represents the price or value of an aggregate of goods, services, wages, or other measurable quantities in comparison with a reference number for a previous period of time.

(operations) A detailed list of all of the items on hand.

A number that represents the change in price or value of stocks or other securities in a particular market, sector, or asset class.

(operations) The process of producing or updating such a list.

The stocks or other securities represented by an index.

A space containing the items available to a character, especially that in a video game, for immediate use.

Index Roman Catholic Church A list formerly published by Church authority, restricting or forbidding the reading of certain books.

The total set of a specified linguistic feature within a language etc.

To furnish with an index

To take stock of the resources or items on hand; to produce an inventory.

To enter in an index.

An account, catalogue, or schedule, made by an executor or administrator, of all the goods and chattels, and sometimes of the real estate, of a deceased person; a list of the property of which a person or estate is found to be possessed; hence, an itemized list of goods or valuables, with their estimated worth.

To indicate or signal.

The objects contained on an inventory{1};

To adjust through indexation.

The total value of all goods in an inventory{2}.

An alphabetical listing of items and their location.

The act of making an inventory{1}.

The index finger; the forefinger.

To make an inventory of; to make a list, catalogue, or schedule of; to insert or register in an account of goods; as, a merchant inventories his stock.

A movable finger on a gauge, scale, etc.

A detailed list of all the items in stock

(typography) A symbol resembling a pointing hand, used to direct particular attention to a note or paragraph.

The merchandise that a shop has on hand;

That which points out; that which shows, indicates, manifests, or discloses.

(accounting) the value of a firm's current assets including raw materials and work in progress and finished goods

A sign; an indication; a token.

A collection of resources;

(linguistics) A type of noun where the meaning of the form changes with respect to the context; e.g., 'Today's newspaper' is an indexical form since its referent will differ depending on the context. See also icon and symbol.

Making an itemized list of merchandise or supplies on hand;

(economics) A single number calculated from an array of prices or of quantities.

Make or include in an itemized record or report;

(science) A number representing a property or ratio; a coefficient.

(mathematics) A raised suffix indicating a power.

An integer or other key indicating the location of data, e.g. within an array, vector, database table, associative array, or hash table.

A data structure that improves the performance of operations on a table.

(obsolete) A prologue indicating what follows.

(transitive) To arrange an index for something, especially a long text.

To inventory; to take stock.

To normalise in order to account for inflation; to correct for inflation by linking to a price index in order to maintain real levels.

To measure by an associated value.

To be indexical for (some situation or state of affairs); to indicate.

(computing) To access a value in a data container by an index.

That which points out; that which shows, indicates, manifests, or discloses; as, the increasing unemployment rate is an index of how much the economy has slowed.

That which guides, points out, informs, or directs; a pointer or a hand that directs to anything, as the hand of a watch, a movable finger or other form of pointer on a gauge, scale, or other graduated instrument.

A table for facilitating reference to topics, names, and the like, in a book, usually giving the page on which a particular word or topic may be found; - usually alphabetical in arrangement, and printed at the end of the volume. Typically found only in non-fiction books.

A prologue indicating what follows.

The second finger, that next to the pollex (thumb), in the manus, or hand; the forefinger; index finger.

The figure or letter which shows the power or root of a quantity; the exponent.

The ratio, or formula expressing the ratio, of one dimension of a thing to another dimension; as, the vertical index of the cranium.

A number providing a measure of some quantity derived by a formula, usually a form of averaging, from multiple quantities; - used mostly in economics; as, the index of leading indicators; the index of industrial production; the consumer price index. See, for example, the consumer price index.

A file containing a table with the addresses of data items, arranged for rapid and convenient search for the addresses.

A number which serves as a label for a data item and also represents the address of a data item within a table or array.

The Index prohibitorius, a catalogue of books which are forbidden by the church to be read; also called Index of forbidden books and Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

To provide with an index or table of references; to put into an index; as, to index a book, or its contents.

To adjust (wages, prices, taxes, etc.) automatically so as to compensate for changes in prices, usually as measured by the consumer price index or other economic measure. Its purpose is usually to copensate for inflation.

To insert (a word, name, file folder, etc.) into an index or into an indexed arrangement; as, to index a contract under its date of signing.

A numerical scale used to compare variables with one another or with some reference number

A number or ratio (a value on a scale of measurement) derived from a series of observed facts; can reveal relative changes as a function of time

A mathematical notation indicating the number of times a quantity is multiplied by itself

An alphabetical listing of names and topics along with page numbers where they are discussed

The finger next to the thumb

List in an index

Provide with an index;

Adjust through indexation;