index card

American  

noun

index cards plural

1. a card, often relatively small, as 3 × 5 inches (7.6 × 12.7 centimeters), used in noting or recording information and usually filed in an index.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• index cards
  plural

Etymology

Origin of index card

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

index card

When the NFL draft begins on Thursday night, Commissioner Roger Goodell will hardly need to glance at an index card to know that the Raiders intended to use the first overall pick on Mendoza.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

And they had an index card, recently discovered by one of Garcetti’s investigators in the office files, that listed Butler as a D.A. informant.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2025

I keep a picture of that young boy now in my studio, one I cut out from a newspaper and mounted on an index card.

From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2023

Photographers snapped the president holding up the outward-facing index card during a brief press availability in the Roosevelt Room to kick off the meeting.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 24, 2022

I wrote the poem on an index card and memorized it while I cleaned the gas company.

From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez