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bottom

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

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Letters

6 characters

Language

English

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bottom", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "bottom" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "bottom" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

bottom is aEnglishnoun. It means: The lowest part of anything. Pronounced /ˈbɒ.təm/. It ranks #1,521 in English word frequency. Often confused with button and bottoms.

Key facts for bottom
PropertyValue
Headwordbottom
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈbɒ.təm/
Letters6
Frequency rank#1,521
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of bottom in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for bottom is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for bottom, with forms such as "bbottom", "botom", and "bototm". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "button", "bottoms", "bottomed", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

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”).… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is bottom, spelled B-O-T-T-O-M, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The lowest part of anything.
  2. 2
    The lowest part of anything.
  3. 3
    The lowest part of anything.
  4. 4
    The lowest part of anything.
  5. 5
    The lowest part of anything.
  6. 6
    The lowest part of anything.
  7. 7
    The lowest part of anything.
  8. 8
    The lowest part of anything.
  9. 9
    The remotest or innermost part of something.
  10. 10
    The fundamental part; a basic aspect.
  11. 11
    Low-lying land; a valley or hollow.
  12. 12
    Low-lying land near a river with alluvial soil.
  13. 13
    The buttocks or anus.
  14. 14
    The bed of a body of water.
  15. 15
    An abyss.
  16. 16
    A cargo vessel, a ship.
  17. 17
    Certain parts of a vessel, particularly the cargo hold or the portion of the ship that is always underwater.
  18. 18
    A person who has a receptive role or has a preference for that role during intercourse.
  19. 19
    A person who has a receptive role or has a preference for that role during intercourse.
  20. 20
    Character, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment.
  21. 21
    Power of endurance.
  22. 22
    A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon.
  23. 23
    A trundle or spindle of thread.
  24. 24
    Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment.
  25. 25
    Ellipsis 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

Spanish(Español)Portuguese(Português)French(Français)German(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: bbottom,botom,bototm,bottmo,bottomm,btotom,obttom

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bottom

Misspelling Variants of "bottom"

bbottom7botom5bototm6bottmo6bottomm7btotom6obttom6
Misspelling Variants of "bottom"

Frequency rank: #1,521 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bottom"?
"bottom" is spelled B-O-T-T-O-M. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈbɒ.təm/.
What does "bottom" mean?
As a noun, "bottom" means: The lowest part of anything.
What words are commonly confused with "bottom"?
"bottom" is commonly confused with "button", "bottoms", "bottomed". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "bottom"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bottom" is /ˈbɒ.təm/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "bottom"?
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 (... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.