indignevsinsigneTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,677
“indigne” frequency rank
#13,407
“insigne” frequency rank
23084
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indigne insigne
Definition Qui n’est pas digne de quelque chose. Qui s’impose à l’attention par son caractère.

Where the eye mixes indigne and insigne

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. indigne and insigne follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
indigne
7 ch
insigne

Visual trap between indigne and insigne

A purely visual mix-up. indigne (\ɛ̃.diɲ\) and insigne (\ɛ̃.siɲ\) 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 a single letter - d in “indigne” becomes s in “insigne”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23084, 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\. insigne is at rank #13,407, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.siɲ\.

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 23084, this pair ranks #354,469 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of indigne vs insigne

Shared letters: egin. Private to "indigne": d. Private to "insigne": s.

"indigne" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "insigne" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indigne ← idnigne · inddigne · indgine · indigen · indiggne · indignne · indinge · inidgne
  • insigne ← inisgne · innsigne · insgine · insigen · insiggne · insignne · insinge · inssigne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "indigne" and "insigne" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.diɲ\ versus \ɛ̃.siɲ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "indigne" or "insigne"?
"indigne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,677 in our French list, against #13,407 for "insigne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "indigne" and "insigne" 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 "insigne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #354,469 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indigne" and "insigne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "insight vs insigne". 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 #354,469 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