Which to use
“indication” and “indicator” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,482
- “indication” frequency rank
- #8,048
- “indicator” frequency rank
- 14530
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | indication | indicator |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An act of pointing out or indicating. | A pointer or index that indicates something. |
Where the eye mixes indication and indicator
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between indication and indicator
A purely visual mix-up. indication (/ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/) and indicator (/ˈɪn.dɪˌkeɪ.tə(ɹ)/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14530, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
indication is recorded at frequency rank #6,482, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/. indicator is at rank #8,048, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪn.dɪˌkeɪ.tə(ɹ)/.
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 14530, this pair ranks #469,469 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of indication vs indicator
Shared letters: acdinot. Private to "indication": -. Private to "indicator": r.
"indication" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC · "indicator" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- indication ← idnication · indciation · inddication · indiaction · indicaiton · indicasion · indicatino · indicationn
- indicator ← idnicator · indciator · inddicator · indiactor · indicaotr · indicatorr · indicatro · indicattor
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "indication" for "indicator" ever safe?
Frequency check: "indication" vs "indicator" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "indication" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "indicator" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #469,469 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "indication" and "indicator" 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 #469,469 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.