Which to use
“indulge” is a verb and “indulgent” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,142
- “indulge” frequency rank
- #25,795
- “indulgent” frequency rank
- 39937
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | indulge | indulgent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To yield to a temptation or desire. | Disposed or prone to indulge, humor, gratify, or yield to one's own or another's desires, etc., or to be compliant, lenient, or forbearing. |
Where the eye mixes indulge and indulgent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. indulge runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against indulgent's 9 (VCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between indulge and indulgent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: indulge is /ɪnˈdʌld͡ʒ/ while indulgent is /ɪnˈdʌld͡ʒənt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “indulge” sits inside “indulgent”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39937, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
indulge is recorded at frequency rank #14,142, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪnˈdʌld͡ʒ/. indulgent is at rank #25,795, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈdʌld͡ʒənt/.
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 39937, this pair ranks #272,164 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of indulge vs indulgent
Shared letters: degilnu. Private to "indulge": -. Private to "indulgent": t.
"indulge" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV · "indulgent" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "indulge" and "indulgent" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "indulge" or "indulgent" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "indulge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "indulgent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #272,164 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "indulge" and "indulgent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indigent vs indulgent". 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 #272,164 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.