bottom
/ˈbɒ.təm/
"bottom" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bottom” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,521 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,521
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The lowest part of anything.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bottom |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɒ.təm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,521 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bottom” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bottom is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɒ.təm/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,521 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 25 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for bottom, with forms such as "bbottom", "botom", and "bototm". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "button", "bottoms", "bottomed", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *bʰudʰmḗn From Middle English botme, botom, from Old English botm, bodan (“bottom, foundation; ground, abyss”), from Proto-West Germanic *butm, from Proto-Germanic *butmaz, *budmaz (“bottom; ground”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom”).… The correct English form is bottom, spelled B-O-T-T-O-M.
Definition
- 1The lowest part of anything.
- 2The lowest part of anything.
- 3The lowest part of anything.
- 4The lowest part of anything.
- 5The lowest part of anything.
- 6The lowest part of anything.
- 7The lowest part of anything.
- 8The lowest part of anything.
- 9The remotest or innermost part of something.
- 10The fundamental part; a basic aspect.
- 11Low-lying land; a valley or hollow.
- 12Low-lying land near a river with alluvial soil.
- 13The buttocks or anus.
- 14The bed of a body of water.
- 15An abyss.
- 16A cargo vessel, a ship.
- 17Certain parts of a vessel, particularly the cargo hold or the portion of the ship that is always underwater.
- 18A person who has a receptive role or has a preference for that role during intercourse.
- 19A person who has a receptive role or has a preference for that role during intercourse.
- 20Character, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment.
- 21Power of endurance.
- 22A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon.
- 23A trundle or spindle of thread.
- 24Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment.
- 25Ellipsis of bottom quark.
Etymology
PIE word *bʰudʰmḗn From Middle English botme, botom, from Old English botm, bodan (“bottom, foundation; ground, abyss”), from Proto-West Germanic *butm, from Proto-Germanic *butmaz, *budmaz (“bottom; ground”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom”). Cognates Cognate with Yola bothom, bottom (“bottom”), Saterland Frisian Boudem (“floor; ground”), West Frisian boaiem (“floor; ground”), Dutch bodem, boom, boôm (“bottom; ground, soil”), German Boden (“floor; ground; soil”), Limburgish baom (“bottom; ground, soil”), Luxembourgish Buedem (“bottom; earth, soil”), Vilamovian bödum (“bottom; ground”), Danish bund (“bottom”), Elfdalian buottn (“bottom”), Faroese botnur (“bottom”), Icelandic and Norwegian Nynorsk botn (“bottom”), Norwegian Bokmål botn, bunn (“bottom”), Swedish botten (“bottom”); also Irish and Scottish Gaelic bonn (“base, bottom; sole (of foot)”), Latin fundus (“bottom”) (whence fund, via French), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom of a cup or jar; the bottom of the sea; butt of a tree”), Albanian buzë (“rocky chasm”), Armenian անդունդ (andund), անդունդք (andundkʻ, “abyss, chasm”), Northern Kurdish bin (“bottom”), Persian بن (bon, “bottom”), Sanskrit बुध्न (budhna, “bottom”). The sense “posterior of a person” is first attested in 1794; the verb “to reach the bottom of” is first attested in 1808. bottom dollar (“the last dollar one has”) is from 1882.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbottom,botom,bototm,bottmo,bottomm,btotom,obttom
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bottom - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “bottom”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-T-T-O-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɒ.təm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “button” - see the side-by-side comparison. bottom vs button
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.