price index

noun

: an index number expressing the level of a group of commodity prices relative to the level of the prices of the same commodities during an arbitrarily chosen base period and used to indicate changes in the level of prices from one period to another

Examples of price index in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Fed will get another look at inflation data Friday morning when the Commerce Department releases the personal consumption expenditures price index data for January. —Jeff Cox, CNBC, 12 Mar. 2026

The Federal Reserve tracks the Personal Consumption Expenditures price indexes for its 2% inflation target and is expected to keep interest rates unchanged next week. —Reuters wire Service, Dallas Morning News, 11 Mar. 2026

As for inflation, the primary measure used by the Federal Reserve is the personal consumption expenditures price index. —Josh Boak, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2026

Over the last decade, the producer price index for school construction has grown about 58% and has seen a nearly 36% jump in just the last five years, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data. —Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald, 3 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1886, in the meaning defined above