Small hollows or notches pressed or cut into a surface, like the dents you make when you press your finger into clay.
From Latin 'indentatus' meaning 'having teeth,' combining 'in-' (into) and 'dens' (tooth), because the edges look like teeth; evolved to mean any depression or cut mark.
Medieval documents used indentations to create matching tears—two copies of a contract would have a jagged edge cut between them, so when pressed together they'd prove they were the real pair, making forgery impossible!
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