indicationvsindignationWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,843
“indication” frequency rank
#9,497
“indignation” frequency rank
17340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indication indignation
Definition Action d’indiquer ; le renseignement fourni. Sentiment de colère qui peut être mêlé de mépris qu’excite une injustice criante, une action mauvaise ou honteuse, un ouvrage, etc.

Where the eye mixes indication and indignation

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

10 ch
indication
11 ch
indignation

Look-alike desk: indication vs indignation

A purely visual mix-up. indication (\ɛ̃.di.ka.sjɔ̃\) and indignation (\ɛ̃.di.ɲa.sjɔ̃\) 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 17340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indication is recorded at frequency rank #7,843, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.di.ka.sjɔ̃\. indignation is at rank #9,497, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.di.ɲa.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 17340, this pair ranks #383,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of indication vs indignation

Shared letters: adinot. Private to "indication": c. Private to "indignation": g.

"indication" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC  ·  "indignation" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indicationidnication · indciation · inddication · indiaction · indicaiton · indicatino · indicationn · indicatoin
  • indignationidnignation · inddignation · indgination · indigantion · indiggnation · indignaiton · indignatino · indignationn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "indication" for "indignation" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.di.ka.sjɔ̃\ versus \ɛ̃.di.ɲa.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "indication" vs "indignation" - which ranks higher?
"indication" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,843 in our French list, against #9,497 for "indignation". 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 "indication" and "indignation" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "indication" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "indignation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #383,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indication" and "indignation" 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 #383,662 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