Which to use
“butted” is a verb and “butts” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,109
- “butted” frequency rank
- #14,287
- “butts” frequency rank
- 62396
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | butted | butts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of butt | plural of butt |
Where the eye mixes butted and butts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. butted runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against butts's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: butted vs butts
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: butted is /ˈbʌtɪd/ while butts is /bʌts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62396, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
butted is recorded at frequency rank #48,109, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈbʌtɪd/. butts is at rank #14,287, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bʌts/.
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 62396, this pair ranks #88,728 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of butted vs butts
Shared letters: btu. Private to "butted": de. Private to "butts": s.
"butted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "butts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "butted" and "butts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "butted" or "butts" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "butted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "butts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #88,728 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "butted" and "butts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "buoyed vs butted". 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 #88,728 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.