Which to use
“indulgence” is a noun and “indulgent” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,707
- “indulgence” frequency rank
- #25,795
- “indulgent” frequency rank
- 48502
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | indulgence | indulgent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of indulging. | 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 indulgence and indulgent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. indulgence runs 10 letters (VCCVCCVCCV) against indulgent's 9 (VCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses indulgence with indulgent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: indulgence is /ɪnˈdʌl.d͡ʒəns/ while indulgent is /ɪnˈdʌld͡ʒənt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
indulgence is recorded at frequency rank #22,707, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɪnˈdʌl.d͡ʒəns/. 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 48502, this pair ranks #192,469 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of indulgence vs indulgent
Shared letters: degilnu. Private to "indulgence": c. Private to "indulgent": t.
"indulgence" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV · "indulgent" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- indulgence ← idnulgence · inddulgence · indlugence · induglence · indulegnce · indulgance · indulgecne · indulgencce
- indulgent ← idnulgent · inddulgent · indlugent · induglent · indulegnt · indulgennt · indulgentt · indulgetn
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "indulgence" and "indulgent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "indulgence" vs "indulgent" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "indulgence" 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 #192,469 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "indulgence" 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 #192,469 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.