indicationvsinvocationConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#7,843
“indication” frequency rank
#24,257
“invocation” frequency rank
32100
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indication invocation
Definition Action d’indiquer ; le renseignement fourni. Action d’invoquer.

Where the eye mixes indication and invocation

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

10 ch
indication
10 ch
invocation

Look-alike desk: indication vs invocation

A purely visual mix-up. indication (\ɛ̃.di.ka.sjɔ̃\) and invocation (\ɛ̃.vɔ.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 32100, 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\. invocation is at rank #24,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.vɔ.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 32100, this pair ranks #299,569 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of indication vs invocation

Shared letters: acinot. Private to "indication": d. Private to "invocation": v.

"indication" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC  ·  "invocation" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indicationidnication · indciation · inddication · indiaction · indicaiton · indicatino · indicationn · indicatoin
  • invocationinnvocation · inovcation · invcoation · invoaction · invocaiton · invocatino · invocationn · invocatoin

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "indication" for "invocation" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.di.ka.sjɔ̃\ versus \ɛ̃.vɔ.ka.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "indication" vs "invocation" - which ranks higher?
"indication" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,843 in our French list, against #24,257 for "invocation". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "indication" and "invocation" 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 "invocation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #299,569 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indication" and "invocation" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "invocation vs invocations". 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 #299,569 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