What is an indexical?

Referential precision

Long story short, an indexical is a word that references things situationally without defining them beforehand, as opposed to definitional words which have definite meanings which can be looked up in a dictionary. In other words, indexicals only have meaning in context. A good way to remember what an indexical is, is to consider the Latin roots of the term index which means pointer finger; when we point to things in the world with our finger, this is what it means to communicate indexically. Definitional communication in contrast creates meaning in another’s mind by relying on a common vocabulary and defining a new term in relation to pre-existing vocabulary. As opposed to defining words using more words, communicating indexically simply involves showing the thing that is being talked about.