indexationvsindicationTell them apart

Which to use

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

#20,467
“indexation” frequency rank
#7,843
“indication” frequency rank
28310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indexation indication
Definition Action d'indexer. Action d’indiquer ; le renseignement fourni.

Where the eye mixes indexation and indication

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

10 ch
indexation
10 ch
indication

Why the eye confuses indexation with indication

A purely visual mix-up. indexation (\ɛ̃.dɛk.sa.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 28310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indexation is recorded at frequency rank #20,467, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.dɛk.sa.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 28310, this pair ranks #323,638 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of indexation vs indication

Shared letters: adinot. Private to "indexation": ex. Private to "indication": c.

"indexation" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC  ·  "indication" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indexationidnexation · inddexation · indeaxtion · indexaiton · indexatino · indexationn · indexatoin · indexattion
  • indicationidnication · indciation · inddication · indiaction · indicaiton · indicatino · indicationn · indicatoin

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "indexation" for "indication" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.dɛk.sa.sjɔ̃\ versus \ɛ̃.di.ka.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "indexation" or "indication" show up more?
"indication" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,843 in our French list, against #20,467 for "indexation". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "indexation" 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 #323,638 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indexation" and "indication" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indicatifs vs indication". 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 #323,638 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