card index

American  

noun

card indexes plural

1. a file or catalog consisting of cards on which information has been entered so that desired items or data can be readily found.

---

card index British  

noun

1. an index in which each item is separately listed on systematically arranged cards

---

verb

1. (tr) to make such an index of (a book)

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• card indexes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of card index

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

Example Sentences

The letters poured in and Baxter set up a complicated card index system so children would get personal replies rather than a formatted letter.

From BBC • Aug. 11, 2025

His secret was a fantastic card index system of his own, going back to the 1930s, stored in shoe boxes.

From BBC • Oct. 20, 2014

Senior officials said some assets were on databases, but others were held on a separate card index, or even on handwritten inventories held only in specific historic properties.

From The Guardian • Aug. 9, 2010

By 1917, as wartime spy-fever gripped Britain, roughly a quarter of a million people had been filed into MI5’s card index as suspicious persons.

From New York Times • Jan. 31, 2010

In its earlier years the Alumni Association also undertook to keep up the alumni catalogue and maintained for some time a card index of the alumni.

From The University of Michigan by Shaw, Wilfred