The present application relates to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to an indication method and device for a modulation coding scheme. It is for solving the problem that in an existing LTE/LTE-A system, a higher-order modulation scheme cannot be supported, thereby limiting the further improvement of throughput in an application scenario of a high signal-to-noise ratio. The method of the embodiments of the present application includes: according to the channel quality and a first MCS table, a network side determining an MCS level corresponding to a channel scheduled for a UE; and by means of first indication information, notifying the UE of the determined MCS level, so as to indicate to the UE to determine a modulation scheme and code rate for the channel scheduled therefor according to the MCS grade, wherein there are at least corresponding entries of MCS indexes and TBS indexes corresponding to modulation schemes at higher modulation orders than 6 in the first MCS table. The embodiments of the present application introduce a higher-order modulation scheme into an existing LTE/LTE-A system, improving the spectrum efficiency.