indent.
A cut or notch in the margin of anything, or a recess like a notch.
Meaning & usage
A cut or notch in the margin of anything, or a recess like a notch.
A stamp; an impression.
A certificate, or intended certificate, issued by the government of the United States at the close of the Revolution, for the principal or interest of the public debt.
A requisition or order for supplies, sent to the commissariat of an army.
Where this word comes from
Partly from Middle English indenten (“to dent in”), equivalent to in- + dent (see dent); partly from Middle English indenten, endenten, from Old French endenter (“to cut notches into”), from en- (“in-, en-”) + dent (“tooth”), from Latin dēns.
To notch; to jag; to cut into points like a row of teeth
to indent the edge of paper
To be cut, notched, or dented.
To dent; to stamp or to press in; to impress
indent a smooth surface with a hammer
to indent wax with a stamp
To cut the two halves of a document in duplicate, using a jagged or wavy line so that each party could demonstrate that their copy was part of the original whole.
To enter into a binding agreement by means of such documents; to formally commit (to doing something); to contract.
To engage (someone), originally by means of indented contracts.
to indent a young man to a shoemaker; to indent a servant
To begin (a line or lines) at a greater or lesser distance from the margin. See indentation, and indention. Normal indent pushes in a line or paragraph. "Hanging indent" pulls the line out into the margin.
to indent the first line of a paragraph one em
to indent the second paragraph two ems more than the first
To crook or turn; to wind in and out; to zigzag.
To make an order upon; to draw upon, as for military stores.
Where this word comes from
Partly from Middle English indenten (“to dent in”), equivalent to in- + dent (see dent); partly from Middle English indenten, endenten, from Old French endenter (“to cut notches into”), from en- (“in-, en-”) + dent (“tooth”), from Latin dēns.
Try it on your idea.
indent has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.