Skip to main content
PlainSpell

butt

/bʌt/noun, verb

butt is spelled B-U-T-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,444th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “but vs butt” about 390 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, butt means “The buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of butt is butts.

How many letters and syllables are in butt?

Letters4: B-U-T-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing19 times per million words; the 4,444th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is butt?

Butt appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,444th 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 butt?

  • US /bʌt/
  • /bʊt/

Butt has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

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

Words people confuse with butt

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

but vs butt390 G

Sounds like: but (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with butt?

8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as butt from its last stressed vowel (/ʌt/):

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 butt

  • butts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • butting participle, present
  • butted participle, past
  • but

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

What does butt mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    CanadaUSThe buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass).

    Get up off your butt and get to work.

  2. 2

    CanadaUSThe whole buttocks and pelvic region that includes one's private parts.

    I can see your butt.

  3. 3

    CanadaUScolloquialBody; self.

    Get your butt to the car.

  4. 4

    The thickest and stoutest part of tanned oxhides, used for soles of boots, harness, trunks.

  5. 5

    A used cigarette.

  6. 6

    A piece of land left unplowed at the end of a field.

  7. 7

    obsoleteHassock.

  8. 8

    USA crust end-piece of a loaf of bread.

  9. 9

    A push, thrust, or sudden blow, given by the head; a head butt.

    Be careful in the pen, that ram can knock you down with a butt.

  10. 10

    A thrust in fencing.

  11. 11

    An English measure of capacity for liquids, containing 126 wine gallons which is one-half tun.

  12. 12

    A wooden cask for storing wine, usually containing 126 gallons.

  13. 13

    Any of various flatfish such as sole, plaice or turbot.

  14. 14

    The shoulder of an animal, especially the portion above the picnic, as a cut of meat.

  15. 15

    colloquialSynonym of butty (“a friend or buddy”).

  16. 16

    IrelanddatedA heavy two-wheeled cart.

  17. 17

    IrelanddatedA three-wheeled cart resembling a wheelbarrow.

verb

  1. 1

    To join at the butt, end, or outward extremity; to terminate; to be bounded; to abut.

  2. 2

    To strike bluntly, particularly with the head.

  3. 3

    To strike bluntly with the head.

    Rams butt at other males during mating season.

  4. 4

    CanadaTo cut in line (in front of someone).

    Teacher! He just butted me!

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

Butt in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcrosse (larger or thicker end of anything; blunt end), cul, derrière (buttocks), mégot (remnant of a smoked cigarette or cigar)
GermanKolben (larger or thicker end of anything; blunt end), Arsch, Gesäß, Po, Hintern (buttocks), Kopfstoß (sudden blow from the head of an animal; headbutt)
Portuguesebumbum (larger or thicker end of anything; blunt end), cu, bunda, nádegas, traseiro, rabo (buttocks)
Spanishculo, culamen, nalgas, trasero, pompis, posaderas (buttocks)

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 butt come from?

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”).

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

What to look up after butt