indignevsindiqueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,677
“indigne” frequency rank
#1,772
“indique” frequency rank
11449
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indigne indique
Definition Qui n’est pas digne de quelque chose. Qualifie les composés acides de l’indium et de l’oxygène.

Where the eye mixes indigne and indique

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. indigne (VCCVCCV) and indique (VCCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
indigne
7 ch
indique

Why the eye confuses indigne with indique

A purely visual mix-up. indigne (\ɛ̃.diɲ\) and indique (\ɛ̃.dik\) 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 11449, 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\. indique is at rank #1,772, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.dik\.

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 11449, this pair ranks #409,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of indigne vs indique

Shared letters: dein. Private to "indigne": g. Private to "indique": qu.

"indigne" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "indique" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indigne ← idnigne · inddigne · indgine · indigen · indiggne · indignne · indinge · inidgne
  • indique ← idnique · inddique · indiqeu · indiqque · indiuqe · indqiue · inidque · inndique

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "indigne" and "indique" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.diɲ\ versus \ɛ̃.dik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "indigne" or "indique"?
"indique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,772 in our French list, against #9,677 for "indigne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "indigne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "indique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #409,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indigne" and "indique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indigence vs indigne". 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 #409,104 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