Which to use
“buffered” is an adjective and “buttered” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,507
- “buffered” frequency rank
- #34,812
- “buttered” frequency rank
- 82319
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | buffered | buttered |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Using a buffer. | simple past and past participle of butter |
Letter map: buffered vs buttered
Shared letters muted; letters that set buffered and buttered apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Part-of-speech tell for buffered / buttered
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: buffered is anadjective and butteredaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82319, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
buffered is recorded at frequency rank #47,507, classified as anadj. buttered is at rank #34,812, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈbʌtəɹd/.
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 82319, this pair ranks #15,928 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of buffered vs buttered
Shared letters: bderu. Private to "buffered": f. Private to "buttered": t.
"buffered" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "buttered" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "buffered" and "buttered" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "buffered" vs "buttered" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "buffered" and "buttered".
- Full dictionary entry for "buffered" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "buttered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #15,928 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "buffered" and "buttered" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "butted vs buttered". 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 #15,928 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.