Which to use
“incitation” and “indication” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,799
- “incitation” frequency rank
- #7,843
- “indication” frequency rank
- 20642
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | incitation | indication |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action d’inciter. | Action d’indiquer ; le renseignement fourni. |
Where the eye mixes incitation and indication
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. incitation and indication follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses incitation with indication
A purely visual mix-up. incitation (\ɛ̃.si.ta.sjɔ̃\) and indication (\ɛ̃.di.ka.sjɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
incitation is recorded at frequency rank #12,799, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.si.ta.sjɔ̃\. indication is at rank #7,843, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.di.ka.sjɔ̃\.
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 20642, this pair ranks #367,255 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of incitation vs indication
Shared letters: acinot. Private to "incitation": -. Private to "indication": d.
"incitation" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC · "indication" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- incitation ← icnitation · inccitation · inciattion · incitaiton · incitatino · incitationn · incitatoin · incitattion
- indication ← idnication · indciation · inddication · indiaction · indicaiton · indicatino · indicationn · indicatoin
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "incitation" for "indication" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "incitation" or "indication" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "incitation" and "indication" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "incitation" 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 #367,255 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "incitation" and "indication" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incitation vs inclination". 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 #367,255 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.