indiennesvsindiensTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,153
“indiennes” frequency rank
#4,947
“indiens” frequency rank
21100
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indiennes indiens
Definition Féminin pluriel de indien. Masculin pluriel de indien.

Where the eye mixes indiennes and indiens

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

9 ch
indiennes
7 ch
indiens

Why the eye confuses indiennes with indiens

A purely visual mix-up. indiennes (\ɛ̃.djɛn\) and indiens (\ɛ̃.djɛ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21100, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indiennes is recorded at frequency rank #16,153, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.djɛn\. indiens is at rank #4,947, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.djɛ̃\.

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 21100, this pair ranks #364,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of indiennes vs indiens

Shared letters: deins. Private to "indiennes": -. Private to "indiens": -.

"indiennes" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCCVC  ·  "indiens" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indiennes ← idniennes · inddiennes · indeinnes · indienens · indienes · indienness · indiennse · indinenes
  • indiens ← idniens · inddiens · indeins · indienns · indienss · indiesn · indines · inidens

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "indiennes" for "indiens" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.djɛn\ versus \ɛ̃.djɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "indiennes" vs "indiens" - which ranks higher?
"indiens" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,947 in our French list, against #16,153 for "indiennes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "indiennes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "indiens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #364,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indiennes" and "indiens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indemnes vs indiennes". 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 #364,857 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