Which to use
“indécence” and “indigence” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,854
- “indécence” frequency rank
- #49,150
- “indigence” frequency rank
- 82004
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | indécence | indigence |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Caractère de ce qui est indécent. | Grande pauvreté ; privation du nécessaire. |
Where the eye mixes indécence and indigence
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. indécence and indigence follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses indécence with indigence
A purely visual mix-up. indécence (\ɛ̃.de.sɑ̃s\) and indigence (\ɛ̃.di.ʒɑ̃s\) 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 82004, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
indécence is recorded at frequency rank #32,854, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.de.sɑ̃s\. indigence is at rank #49,150, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.di.ʒɑ̃s\.
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 82004, this pair ranks #17,635 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of indécence vs indigence
Shared letters: cdein. Private to "indécence": é. Private to "indigence": g.
"indécence" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV · "indigence" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- indigence ← idnigence · inddigence · indgience · indiegnce · indigecne · indigencce · indigenec · indigennce
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "indécence" and "indigence" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "indécence" vs "indigence" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "indécence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "indigence" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,635 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "indécence" and "indigence" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indigence vs indigents". 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 #17,635 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.