BurgvsButtTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,363
“Burg” frequency rank
#36,237
“Butt” frequency rank
39600
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Burg Butt
Definition mittelalterlicher, befestigter Wohn- und Verteidigungsbau norddeutscher Name der Flunder

Where the eye mixes Burg and Butt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Burg
4 ch
Butt

Visual trap between Burg and Butt

A purely visual mix-up. Burg ([bʊʁk]) 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 39600, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Burg is recorded at frequency rank #3,363, classified as anoun, pronounced [bʊʁk]. 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 39600, this pair ranks #1,532,213 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Burg vs Butt

Shared letters: bu. Private to "Burg": gr. Private to "Butt": t.

"Burg" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Butt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Burgbburg · brug · bugr · burgg · burrg · ubrg
  • Buttbbutt · btut · ubtt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Burg" and "Butt" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([bʊʁk] versus [bʊt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Burg" vs "Butt" - which ranks higher?
"Burg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,363 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Burg" 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 #1,532,213 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Burg" 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 #1,532,213 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