What is a sign in medical terms?

Answer 1

A medical sign is an objectiveindication of some medical fact or characteristic that may be detected by a physician during a physical examination of a patient.

Signs may have no meaning for, and can even go unnoticed by, the patient, but may be full of meaning for the healthcare provider, and are often significant in assisting a healthcare provider in diagnosis of medical condition(s) responsible for the patient's symptoms.

Examples include elevated blood pressure, a clubbing of the fingers (which may be a sign of lung disease, or many other things), and arcus senilis.

The term sign is not to be confused with the term indication, which denotes a valid reason for using some treatment.

Signs are different from symptoms, the subjectiveexperiences, such as fatigue, that patients might report to their examining physician.

For convenience, signs are commonly distinguished from symptoms as follows: Both are something abnormal, relevant to a potential medical condition, but a symptom is experienced and reported by the patient, while a sign is discovered by the physician during examination of the patient
A sign is something that the examiner observes to be wrong with the patient. Methods include: palpation, auscultation, etc.

Answer 2

A sign is an objective finding during the physical exam.