butterface
/ˈbʌ.təˌfeɪs/
"butterface" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“butterface” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person who has an attractive body but an unattractive face.
Corpus desk
Index EN-butterface · butterface · English
butterface · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | butterface |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbʌ.təˌfeɪs/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “butterface” in English
Rare enough to double-check
butterface is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbʌ.təˌfeɪs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
butterface doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Ellipsis of various forms of everything looks good but her face, great body but her face, among other phrases, under the influence of butter (perhaps also with connotation of “plainness”, grease, etc.) and buttface. Compare summerteeth. The correct English form is butterface, spelled B-U-T-T-E-R-F-A-C-E.
Definition
- 1A person who has an attractive body but an unattractive face.
- 2An unattractive face.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how butterface appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I can’t even look at her, she’s such a butterface.
Her face wasn't quite as pretty as he had hoped — Earl, the other mechanic back at his father's place called this kind of girl a Butterface...
Etymology
Ellipsis of various forms of everything looks good but her face, great body but her face, among other phrases, under the influence of butter (perhaps also with connotation of “plainness”, grease, etc.) and buttface. Compare summerteeth.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.