indignevsindignéeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,677
“indigne” frequency rank
#39,847
“indignée” frequency rank
49524
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indigne indignée
Definition Qui n’est pas digne de quelque chose. Féminin singulier de indigné.

Where the eye mixes indigne and indignée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. indigne runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against indignée's 8 (VCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
indigne
8 ch
indignée

Visual trap between indigne and indignée

A purely visual mix-up. indigne (\ɛ̃.diɲ\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49524, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indigne is recorded at frequency rank #9,677, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.diɲ\. 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 49524, this pair ranks #169,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of indigne vs indignée

Shared letters: degin. Private to "indigne": -. Private to "indignée": é.

"indigne" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "indignée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indigne ← idnigne · inddigne · indgine · indigen · indiggne · indignne · indinge · inidgne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "indigne" and "indignée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.diɲ\ versus \ɛ̃.di.ɲe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "indigne" or "indignée"?
"indigne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,677 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

Eye-level mix-up between "indigne" and "indignée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "indigne" 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 #169,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indigne" and "indignée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indigence vs indignée". 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 #169,927 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