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PlainSpell

buffer

buff·er/ˈbʌfəɹ/noun, verb, adjective

buffer is spelled B-U-F-F-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables (buff·er). It appears 6.0 times per million words in written English, the 9,878th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, buffer means “A machine with rotary brushes, passed over a hard floor to clean it” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of buffer is buffers.

How many letters and syllables are in buffer?

Letters6: B-U-F-F-E-R
Syllables2: buff·er
In writing6.0 times per million words; the 9,878th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is buffer?

Buffer appears 6.0 times per million words in written English, the 9,878th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce buffer?

  • UK /ˈbʌfə/
  • UK [ˈbɐfə(ɹ)]
  • US /ˈbʌfəɹ/

Buffer has 2 syllables, split buff·er in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-buffer.ogg, En-au-buffer.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with buffer?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as buffer from its last stressed vowel (/ʌfəɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: rebuff.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of buffer

  • buffers plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • buffering participle, present
  • buffered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does buffer mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A machine with rotary brushes, passed over a hard floor to clean it.

  2. 2

    A machine for polishing shoes and boots.

  3. 3

    IrelandarchaicslangA boxer.

    Such a buffer as Donnelly, / Ereland never again will see.

  4. 4

    A solution used to stabilize the pH (acidity) of a liquid, such as by resisting a change in pH when an acid or alkali is added.

  5. 5

    Anything used to maintain slack or isolate different objects.

  6. 6

    A device on trains and carriages designed to cushion the impact between them.

  7. 7

    The barrier placed at the end of the track to absorb the impact of a train that fails to stop.

  8. 8

    An isolating circuit, often an amplifier, used to minimize the influence of a driven circuit on the driving circuit.

  9. 9

    A routine or storage medium used to compensate for a difference in rate of flow of data, or time of occurrence of events, when transferring data from one device to another.

  10. 10

    A portion of memory set aside to temporarily store data, often before it is sent to an external device or as it is received from an external device.

  11. 11

    A buffer zone (such as a demilitarized zone) or a buffer state.

  12. 12

    colloquialA good-humoured, slow-witted fellow, usually an elderly man.

  13. 13

    UKdatedslangA dog.

verb

  1. 1

    To use a buffer or buffers; to attempt to isolate or minimize the effects of one thing or another.

  2. 2

    To queue up (an input) so that it is performed immediately once it is possible.

    Some games let you buffer jumps–if you hold the jump button mid-air, your character will jump as soon as they touch the ground.

  3. 3

    To store (data) in memory temporarily while it is awaiting processing.

  4. 4

    To maintain the acidity of a solution near a chosen value by adding an acid or a base.

adjective

  1. 1

    Comparative form of buff: more buff. (a form of buff)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Buffer in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Spanishescrepa (someone or something that buffs), búfer, parachoques, amortiguador, intercesor, mediador (anything used to isolate or to minimise the…)
Frenchtampon (anything used to isolate or to minimise the…), solution tampon (solution to stabilize pH), mémoire tampon (portion of memory in computing), tamponner (maintain a given acidity)
GermanPuffer (anything used to isolate or to minimise the…), Pufferspeicher (portion of memory in computing)
Portuguesesolução tampão (solution to stabilize pH), buffer (portion of memory in computing), tamponar (maintain a given acidity)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does buffer come from?

From buff + -er.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after buffer