ButtervsBüttnerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#4,967
“Butter” frequency rank
#30,494
“Büttner” frequency rank
35461
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Butter Büttner
Definition 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 Person, die Fässer herstellt

Where the eye mixes Butter and Büttner

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Butter
7 ch
Büttner

Visual trap between Butter and Büttner

A purely visual mix-up. Butter ([ˈbʊtɐ]) and Büttner ([ˈbʏtnɐ]) 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 35461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Butter is recorded at frequency rank #4,967, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʊtɐ]. Büttner is at rank #30,494, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʏtnɐ].

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 35461, this pair ranks #1,639,427 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Butter vs Büttner

Shared letters: bert. Private to "Butter": u. Private to "Büttner": .

"Butter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Büttner" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Butterbbutter · btuter · buter · butetr · butterr · buttre · ubtter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Butter" for "Büttner" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbʊtɐ] versus [ˈbʏtnɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Butter" or "Büttner" show up more?
"Butter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,967 in our German list, against #30,494 for "Büttner". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Butter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Büttner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,639,427 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Butter" and "Büttner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bündner vs Büttner". 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 #1,639,427 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