buttersvsbuttsConfusable pair

Which to use

“butters” and “butts” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,893
“butters” frequency rank
#14,287
“butts” frequency rank
46180
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature butters butts
Definition plural of butter plural of butt

Where the eye mixes butters and butts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. butters runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against butts's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
butters
5 ch
butts

Visual trap between butters and butts

A purely visual mix-up. butters (/ˈbʌt.əz/) and butts (/bʌts/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46180, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

butters is recorded at frequency rank #31,893, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbʌt.əz/. 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 46180, this pair ranks #214,184 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of butters vs butts

Shared letters: bstu. Private to "butters": er. Private to "butts": -.

"butters" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "butts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • butters ← bbutters · btuters · buters · butetrs · butterrs · butterss · buttesr · buttres
  • butts ← bbutts · btuts · butst · buttss · ubtts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "butters" and "butts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbʌt.əz/ versus /bʌts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "butters" vs "butts" - which ranks higher?
"butts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,287 in our English list, against #31,893 for "butters". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "butters" 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 #214,184 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "butters" and "butts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "butted vs butters". 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 #214,184 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list