Which to use
“indicating” is a verb and “indication” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,149
- “indicating” frequency rank
- #6,482
- “indication” frequency rank
- 12631
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | indicating | indication |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of indicate | An act of pointing out or indicating. |
Where the eye mixes indicating and indication
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses indicating with indication
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: indicating is /ˈɪndɪkeɪtɪŋ/ while indication is /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12631, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
indicating is recorded at frequency rank #6,149, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɪndɪkeɪtɪŋ/. indication is at rank #6,482, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/.
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 12631, this pair ranks #480,435 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of indicating vs indication
Shared letters: acdint. Private to "indicating": g. Private to "indication": o.
"indicating" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCC · "indication" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- indicating ← idnicating · indciating · inddicating · indiacting · indicaitng · indicatign · indicatingg · indicatinng
- indication ← idnication · indciation · inddication · indiaction · indicaiton · indicasion · indicatino · indicationn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "indicating" for "indication" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "indicating" or "indication" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "indicating" and "indication" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "indicating" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "indication" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #480,435 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "indicating" and "indication" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indication vs invocation". 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 #480,435 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.