IndevsIndreWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Inde” and “Indre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,482
“Inde” frequency rank
#14,957
“Indre” frequency rank
17439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Inde Indre
Definition Très grand pays d’Asie, bordé par la Chine, le Népal et le Bhoutan au nord, la Birmanie et le Bangladesh à l’est, la golfe du Bengale et la mer d’Oman au sud, et le Pakistan à l’ouest, et dont la capitale est New Delhi (la Nouvelle-Delhi). Rivière de France, affluent de la Loire, coulant dans le Cher, l’Indre et l’Indre-et-Loire.

Where the eye mixes Inde and Indre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Inde
5 ch
Indre

Why the eye confuses Inde with Indre

A purely visual mix-up. Inde (\ɛ̃d\) and Indre (\ɛ̃dʁ\) 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 17439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Inde is recorded at frequency rank #2,482, classified as aname, pronounced \ɛ̃d\. Indre is at rank #14,957, tagged as aname, pronounced \ɛ̃dʁ\.

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 17439, this pair ranks #383,167 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Inde vs Indre

Shared letters: dein. Private to "Inde": -. Private to "Indre": r.

"Inde" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "Indre" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Indeidne · indde · innde · nide
  • Indreidnre · inddre · inder · indrre · inndre · inrde · nidre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Inde" and "Indre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃d\ versus \ɛ̃dʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Inde" or "Indre"?
"Inde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,482 in our French list, against #14,957 for "Indre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Inde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Indre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #383,167 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Inde" and "Indre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ignare vs Indre". 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 #383,167 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list