A quantity displayed below the normal line of text (and generally in a smaller point size), as the "" in , is called a subscript. Subscripts are commonly used to indicate indices ( is the entry in the th row and th column of a matrix ), partial differentiation ( is an abbreviation for ), and a host of other operations and notations in mathematics.
Subscript
See also
SuperscriptExplore with Wolfram|Alpha
Cite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Subscript." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Subscript.html