Which to use
“indigence” and “indulgence” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,150
- “indigence” frequency rank
- #24,250
- “indulgence” frequency rank
- 73400
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | indigence | indulgence |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Grande pauvreté ; privation du nécessaire. | Facilité à excuser et à pardonner les fautes, les défauts. |
Where the eye mixes indigence and indulgence
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. indigence runs 9 letters (VCCVCVCCV) against indulgence's 10 (VCCVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between indigence and indulgence
A purely visual mix-up. indigence (\ɛ̃.di.ʒɑ̃s\) and indulgence (\ɛ̃.dyl.ʒɑ̃s\) 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 73400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
indigence is recorded at frequency rank #49,150, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.di.ʒɑ̃s\. indulgence is at rank #24,250, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.dyl.ʒɑ̃s\.
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 73400, this pair ranks #40,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of indigence vs indulgence
Shared letters: cdegin. Private to "indigence": -. Private to "indulgence": lu.
"indigence" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV · "indulgence" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- indigence ← idnigence · inddigence · indgience · indiegnce · indigecne · indigencce · indigenec · indigennce
- indulgence ← idnulgence · inddulgence · indlugence · induglence · indulegnce · indulgecne · indulgencce · indulgenec
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "indigence" and "indulgence" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "indigence" or "indulgence"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "indigence" and "indulgence" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "indigence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "indulgence" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "indigence" and "indulgence" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indigence vs indigents". 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 #40,599 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.