indentedvsindenturedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“indented” and “indentured” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,269
“indented” frequency rank
#38,904
“indentured” frequency rank
83173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indented indentured
Definition Cut in the edge into points or inequalities, like teeth; dented on the surface; jagged; notched; stamped in. Subject to an indenture.

Where the eye mixes indented and indentured

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. indented runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVC) against indentured's 10 (VCCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
indented
10 ch
indentured

Look-alike desk: indented vs indentured

A purely visual mix-up. indented (/ɪnˈdɛntɪd/) and indentured (/ɪnˈdɛn.t͡ʃəd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indented is recorded at frequency rank #44,269, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈdɛntɪd/. indentured is at rank #38,904, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈdɛn.t͡ʃəd/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 83173, this pair ranks #14,317 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of indented vs indentured

Shared letters: deint. Private to "indented": -. Private to "indentured": ru.

"indented" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC  ·  "indentured" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indented ← idnented · inddented · indenetd · indennted · indentde · indentedd · indentted · indetned
  • indentured ← idnentured · inddentured · indenntured · indentrued · indenttured · indentuerd · indenturde · indenturedd

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "indented" and "indentured" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɪnˈdɛntɪd/ versus /ɪnˈdɛn.t͡ʃəd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "indented" or "indentured" show up more?
"indentured" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,904 in our English list, against #44,269 for "indented". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "indented" and "indentured" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "indented" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "indentured" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,317 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indented" and "indentured" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indenture vs indentured". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #14,317 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list