BlutvsButtWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Blut” and “Butt” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,586
“Blut” frequency rank
#36,237
“Butt” frequency rank
37823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Blut Butt
Definition dem Stoffwechsel dienende, im Körper zirkulierende rote Flüssigkeit norddeutscher Name der Flunder

Where the eye mixes Blut and Butt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Blut
4 ch
Butt

Why the eye confuses Blut with Butt

A purely visual mix-up. Blut ([bluːt]) and Butt ([bʊt]) 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 37823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Blut is recorded at frequency rank #1,586, classified as anoun, pronounced [bluːt]. Butt is at rank #36,237, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bʊt].

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 37823, this pair ranks #1,580,154 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Blut vs Butt

Shared letters: btu. Private to "Blut": l. Private to "Butt": -.

"Blut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Butt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Blutbblut · bllut · bltu · blutt · bult · lbut
  • Buttbbutt · btut · ubtt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Blut" for "Butt" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bluːt] versus [bʊt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Blut" or "Butt"?
"Blut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,586 in our German list, against #36,237 for "Butt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Blut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Butt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,580,154 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Blut" and "Butt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Buff vs Butt". 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 #1,580,154 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