but
/ˈbʌt/
"but" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“but” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #25 in English word frequency and used as a preposition.
- #25
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Apart from, except (for), excluding.
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 | but |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | /ˈbʌt/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #25 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “but” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for but is 3 letters long, classified as a preposition, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbʌt/. Corpus data places it at rank #25 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
but doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "BW", "BX", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English but, buten, boute, bouten, from Old English būtan (“without, outside of, except, only”), from Proto-West Germanic *biūtan, *biūtini, equivalent to be- + out. Cognate with Scots but, bot (“outside, without, but”), Saterland Frisian buute … The correct English form is but, spelled B-U-T.
Definition
- 1Apart from, except (for), excluding.
- 2Outside of.
Etymology
From Middle English but, buten, boute, bouten, from Old English būtan (“without, outside of, except, only”), from Proto-West Germanic *biūtan, *biūtini, equivalent to be- + out. Cognate with Scots but, bot (“outside, without, but”), Saterland Frisian buute (“without”), West Frisian bûten (“outside of, apart from, other than, except, but”), Dutch buiten (“outside”), Dutch Low Saxon buten (“outside”), German Low German buuten, buute (“outside”), obsolete German baußen (“outside”), Luxembourgish baussen. Compare bin, about.
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 “but”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-U-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbʌt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “by” - see the side-by-side comparison. but vs by
- 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.