Which to use
“but” is a preposition and “bye” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25
- “but” frequency rank
- #3,674
- “bye” frequency rank
- 3699
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | but | bye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Apart from, except (for), excluding. | The position of a person or team in a tournament or competition who draws no opponent in a particular round so advances to the next round unopposed, or is awarded points for a win in a league table; also the phantom opponent of such a person or team. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set but and bye apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
but and bye form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
but is recorded at frequency rank #25, classified as aprep, pronounced /ˈbʌt/. bye is at rank #3,674, tagged as anoun, pronounced /baɪ/.
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 3699, this pair ranks #521,264 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "but" and "bye" be used interchangeably?
Remembering but vs bye
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a preposition, it's “but”; for a noun, it's “bye”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “but” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable