index vs Indus, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“index” is a noun and “Indus” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,628
“index” frequency rank: #26,126
“Indus” frequency rank: 28754
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	index	Indus
Definition	An alphabetical listing of items and their location.	A major river in China, India and Pakistan, rising in Tibet and flowing into the Arabian Sea.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set index and Indus apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

index

5 ch

Indus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: index is /ˈɪndɛks/ while Indus is /ˈɪn.dəs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28754, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

index is recorded at frequency rank #2,628, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪndɛks/. Indus is at rank #26,126, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈɪn.dəs/.

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 28754, this pair ranks #368,581 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of index vs Indus

Shared letters: din. Private to "index": ex. Private to "Indus": su.

"index" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "Indus" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

index ← idnex · inddex · indexx · indxe · inedx · inndex · nidex
Indus ← idnus · inddus · indsu · induss · inndus · inuds · nidus

Frequency comparison

index#2,628

Indus#26,126

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "index" and "Indus" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "index" is a noun and "Indus" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "index" or "Indus"?

"index" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,628 in our English list, against #26,126 for "Indus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering index vs Indus

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “index”; for a name, it's “Indus”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “index” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable