butt

Name: butt, English Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

/bʌt/

//bʌt// noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“butt” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,430) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#4,430
frequency rank, English: 4,121
“B” headwords: 3
tracked misspellings: 20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end

Corpus desk

Index EN-butt · butt · English

butt · rank #4,430 · 3 variants · 20 confusables

FREQ-COMMON #4,430
LEN-MID 4 letters
VOW-1 1 vowel
CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
VAR-LOW 3 variants
BOOK-MID 4,121
PHOTO-FINISH breathing

Nearest frequency peer: breathing (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

bass

95,574
bloody

95,573
breathing

95,572
butt

95,571
characteris…

95,570
CNN

95,569

What this shows Bars place “butt” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

butt vs buy

50% similar

butt vs buzz

50% similar

butt vs buys

50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for butt
Property	Value
Headword	butt
Language	English
Part of speech	Noun
IPA	/bʌt/
Letters	4
Frequency rank	#4,430
Misspellings tracked	3
Confusable pairs	20
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “butt”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).buttlands here:

#4,430

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “breathing” (#4,429), “characteristics” (#4,431), “bloody” (#4,428). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “butt” is #4,430. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for butt is neighbouring look-alikes ("buy", "buzz", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /bʌt/. Frequency #4,430 among 4,121 “B” headwords. 22 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for butt, with forms such as "bbutt", "btut", and "ubtt". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "buy", "buzz", "buys", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English but, butte (“goal, mark, butt of land”), from Old English byt, bytt (“small piece of land”) and *butt (attested in diminutive Old English buttuc (“end, small piece of land”) > English buttock), from Proto-West Germanic *butt, from Proto-… The correct English form is butt, spelled B-U-T-T.

Definition

1
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end
2
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end
3
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end
4
The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end
5
The waste end of anything.
6
The waste end of anything.
7
The waste end of anything.
8
The waste end of anything.
9
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
10
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
11
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
12
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
13
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
14
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
15
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
16
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
17
An end of something, often distinguished in some way from the other end.
18
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
19
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
20
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
21
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.
22
A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how butt appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

Get up off your butt and get to work.
I can see your butt.

Etymology

From Middle English but, butte (“goal, mark, butt of land”), from Old English byt, bytt (“small piece of land”) and *butt (attested in diminutive Old English buttuc (“end, small piece of land”) > English buttock), from Proto-West Germanic *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (“end, piece”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰnós (“bottom”), later thematic variant of Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn ~ *bʰudʰn-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“deep”). Cognate with Norwegian butt (“stump, block”), Icelandic bútur (“piece, fragment”), Low German butt (“blunt, clumsy”). Influenced by Old French but, butte (“but, mark”), ultimately from the same Germanic source. Compare also Albanian bythë (“buttocks”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom of vessel”), Latin fundus (“bottom”) and Sanskrit बुध्न (budhná, “bottom”), from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Related to bottom, boot. PIE word *bʰudʰmḗn

This word in other languages

culo(Español)crosse(Français)Kolben(Deutsch)cu(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

bbutt
btut
ubtt

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of butt - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

Edit distance from "butt"

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

How do you spell "butt"?

"butt" is spelled B-U-T-T. The IPA pronunciation is /bʌt/.

What does "butt" mean?

As a noun, "butt" means: The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end

What words are commonly confused with "butt"?

"butt" is commonly confused with "buy", "buzz", "buys". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "butt"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "butt" is /bʌt/. 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 "butt"?

Is PlainSpell free to use?

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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "butt", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

bass#4,427 wore#4,422 dual#4,443 tale#4,416