indiquevsiniqueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,772
“indique” frequency rank
#42,947
“inique” frequency rank
44719
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indique inique
Definition Qualifie les composés acides de l’indium et de l’oxygène. Qui n'est pas juste, pas égal ; qui manque d’équité.

Where the eye mixes indique and inique

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. indique runs 7 letters (VCCVCVV) against inique's 6 (VCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
indique
6 ch
inique

Visual trap between indique and inique

A purely visual mix-up. indique (\ɛ̃.dik\) and inique (\i.nik\) 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 44719, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indique is recorded at frequency rank #1,772, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.dik\. inique is at rank #42,947, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.nik\.

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 44719, this pair ranks #208,319 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of indique vs inique

Shared letters: einqu. Private to "indique": d. Private to "inique": -.

"indique" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "inique" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indique ← idnique · inddique · indiqeu · indiqque · indiuqe · indqiue · inidque · inndique
  • inique ← iinque · iniqeu · iniqque · iniuqe · innique · inqiue · niique

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "indique" for "inique" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.dik\ versus \i.nik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "indique" or "inique"?
"indique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,772 in our French list, against #42,947 for "inique". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "indique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "inique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #208,319 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indique" and "inique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inique vs iniquité". 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 #208,319 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