indéniablevsintenableWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,617
“indéniable” frequency rank
#23,906
“intenable” frequency rank
37523
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indéniable intenable
Definition Que l’on ne peut dénier, que l’on ne peut refuser de reconnaître sans être taxé de mauvaise foi. Que l’on ne peut tenir.

Where the eye mixes indéniable and intenable

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. indéniable runs 10 letters (VCCVCVVCCV) against intenable's 9 (VCCVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
indéniable
9 ch
intenable

Why the eye confuses indéniable with intenable

A purely visual mix-up. indéniable (\ɛ̃.de.njabl\) and intenable (\ɛ̃.tə.nabl\) 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 37523, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indéniable is recorded at frequency rank #13,617, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.de.njabl\. intenable is at rank #23,906, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tə.nabl\.

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 37523, this pair ranks #261,896 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of indéniable vs intenable

Shared letters: abeiln. Private to "indéniable": dé. Private to "intenable": t.

"indéniable" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVVCCV  ·  "intenable" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intenable ← inetnable · inntenable · inteanble · intenabble · intenabel · intenablle · intenalbe · intenbale

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "indéniable" and "intenable" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.de.njabl\ versus \ɛ̃.tə.nabl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "indéniable" or "intenable" show up more?
"indéniable" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,617 in our French list, against #23,906 for "intenable". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "indéniable" and "intenable" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "indéniable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intenable" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #261,896 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indéniable" and "intenable" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ingérable vs intenable". 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 #261,896 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