Which to use
“bury” is a verb and “butt” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,396
- “bury” frequency rank
- #4,430
- “butt” frequency rank
- 12826
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bury | butt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To ritualistically inter in a grave or tomb. | The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end |
Where the eye mixes bury and butt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses bury with butt
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bury is /ˈbɛɹ.i/ while butt is /bʌt/. 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 12826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bury is recorded at frequency rank #8,396, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈbɛɹ.i/. butt is at rank #4,430, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bʌt/.
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 12826, this pair ranks #479,342 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bury vs butt
Shared letters: bu. Private to "bury": ry. Private to "butt": t.
"bury" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "butt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bury" and "butt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "bury" or "butt" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "bury" and "butt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bury" 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 #479,342 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bury" and "butt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Burney vs bury". 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 #479,342 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.