bittenvsButterTell them apart

Quick tell: bitten is a verb, Butter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bitten” is a verb and “Butter” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,536
“bitten” frequency rank
#4,967
“Butter” frequency rank
7503
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bitten Butter
Definition jemanden in höflicher Form nach etwas fragen, sich in höflicher Form an jemanden wenden, jemanden um etwas ersuchen, einen Wunsch ausdrücken aus Milch (vor allem Kuhmilch) gewonnenes weißes bis gelbliches, streichfähiges Speisefett bestehend aus mindestens 80 % Milchfett und höchstens 16 % Wasser, dem weitere Inhaltsstoffe (zum Beispiel: Kochsalz, amtlich zugelassene [pflanzliche] Farbstoffe) zugesetzt sein können, und das besonders als Brotaufstrich verwendet wird

Where the eye mixes bitten and Butter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
bitten
6 ch
Butter

Visual trap between bitten and Butter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bitten is [ˈbɪtn̩] while Butter is [ˈbʊtɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bitten is recorded at frequency rank #2,536, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈbɪtn̩]. Butter is at rank #4,967, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʊtɐ].

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 7503, this pair ranks #1,987,913 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bitten vs Butter

Shared letters: bet. Private to "bitten": in. Private to "Butter": ru.

"bitten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Butter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bittenbbitten · biten · bitetn · bittenn · bittne · btiten · ibtten
  • Butterbbutter · btuter · buter · butetr · butterr · buttre · ubtter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bitten" and "Butter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bitten" is a verb and "Butter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "bitten" or "Butter" show up more?
"bitten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,536 in our German list, against #4,967 for "Butter". 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 "bitten" and "Butter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bitten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Butter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,987,913 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bitten" and "Butter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "battery vs Butter". 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 #1,987,913 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list