indigènevsindignéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,911
“indigène” frequency rank
#39,847
“indignée” frequency rank
56758
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indigène indignée
Definition Qui est originaire du pays où il vit, où il se manifeste. Féminin singulier de indigné.

Where the eye mixes indigène and indignée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
indigène
8 ch
indignée

Visual trap between indigène and indignée

A purely visual mix-up. indigène (\ɛ̃.di.ʒɛn\) and indignée (\ɛ̃.di.ɲe\) 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 56758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indigène is recorded at frequency rank #16,911, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.di.ʒɛn\. indignée is at rank #39,847, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.di.ɲe\.

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 56758, this pair ranks #119,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of indigène vs indignée

Shared letters: degin. Private to "indigène": è. Private to "indignée": é.

"indigène" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "indignée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "indigène" and "indignée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.di.ʒɛn\ versus \ɛ̃.di.ɲe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "indigène" or "indignée" show up more?
"indigène" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,911 in our French list, against #39,847 for "indignée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "indigène" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "indignée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #119,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indigène" and "indignée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indigence vs indignée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #119,109 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