Which to use
“Indus” is a name and “intrus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,483
- “Indus” frequency rank
- #20,474
- “intrus” frequency rank
- 47957
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Indus | intrus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fleuve d’Asie qui prend sa source en Chine, passe par le Pakistan et l’Inde et se jette dans l’océan Indien, et qui a donné son nom à l’Inde. | Introduit, contre le droit, dans quelque dignité ecclésiastique. |
Where the eye mixes Indus and intrus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Indus runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against intrus's 6 (VCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses Indus with intrus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Indus is \ɛ̃.dys\ while intrus is \ɛ̃.tʁy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47957, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Indus is recorded at frequency rank #27,483, classified as aname, pronounced \ɛ̃.dys\. intrus is at rank #20,474, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tʁy\.
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 47957, this pair ranks #182,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Indus vs intrus
Shared letters: insu. Private to "Indus": d. Private to "intrus": rt.
"Indus" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "intrus" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Indus" and "intrus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "Indus" or "intrus"?
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 "Indus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intrus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #182,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Indus" and "intrus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Indus vs infuse". 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 #182,811 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.