noun

concordance

An alphabetical index of words in a text showing where they occur.

She uses a concordance to find every mention of forgiveness.

Etymology

The root concerns agreement or correspondence. A textual concordance gathers corresponding occurrences of words, allowing a reader to locate and compare their uses throughout a work.

In context

Apologetics Canada3:19
my dad handed me a Strong's concordance, you know, a couple inches thick, and said, "I want you to look up every use of the word angel in scripture
Rediscovering the Bible with Tara-Leigh Cobble

More examples

  • The Bible concordance lists each verse containing the word peace.
  • An online concordance helps students trace recurring words in Shakespeare's plays.
  • These two concordances cover different editions of the same book.

Forms

concordance · concordances

Similar words

index
Usually lists selected topics rather than individual word occurrences.
glossary
Explains specialized terms rather than showing where they occur.