Which to use
“buttons” and “butts” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,317
- “buttons” frequency rank
- #14,287
- “butts” frequency rank
- 21604
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | buttons | butts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of button | plural of butt |
Where the eye mixes buttons and butts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. buttons 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.
Visual trap between buttons and butts
A purely visual mix-up. buttons (/ˈbʌt.ənz/) 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 21604, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
buttons is recorded at frequency rank #7,317, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbʌt.ənz/. 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 21604, this pair ranks #422,691 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of buttons vs butts
Shared letters: bstu. Private to "buttons": no. Private to "butts": -.
"buttons" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "butts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "buttons" and "butts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "buttons" vs "butts" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "buttons" 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 #422,691 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "buttons" and "butts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "batt vs butts". 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 #422,691 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.