button
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "button", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "button" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "button" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
button is aEnglishnoun. It means: A knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener. Pronounced /ˈbʌt(ə)n/. It ranks #2,658 in English word frequency. Often confused with butts and Buxton.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | button |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbʌt(ə)n/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,658 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for button is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbʌt(ə)n/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,658 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 33 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for button, with forms such as "bbutton", "btuton", and "buton". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "butts", "Buxton", "buttons", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English boton, botoun, from Old French boton (Modern French bouton), from Old French bouter, boter (“to push; thrust”), ultimately from a Germanic language. Doublet of bouton, Biden, and beat. More at butt. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is button, spelled B-U-T-T-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener.
- 2A mechanical device designed to be pressed with a finger in order to open or close an electric circuit or to activate a mechanism.
- 3An on-screen control that can be selected as an activator of an attached function.
- 4A badge worn on clothes, fixed with a pin through the fabric.
- 5A bud.
- 6The calyx of an orange.
- 7The head of an unexpanded mushroom.
- 8The clitoris.
- 9The center (bullseye) of the house.
- 10The soft circular tip at the end of a foil.
- 11A plastic disk used to represent the person in last position in a poker game; also dealer's button.
- 12The player who is last to act after the flop, turn and river, who possesses the button.
- 13A person who acts as a decoy.
- 14A raised pavement marker to further indicate the presence of a pavement-marking painted stripe.
- 15The end of a runway.
- 16A methaqualone tablet (used as a recreational drug).
- 17A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, such as a door.
- 18A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion.
- 19A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.
- 20A small white blotch on a cat's coat.
- 21A unit of length equal to ¹⁄₁₂ inch.
- 22The means for initiating a nuclear strike or similar cataclysmic occurrence.
- 23The oblate spheroidal mass of glass attaching a stem to either its bowl or foot.
- 24In an instrument of the violin family, the near-semicircular shape extending from the top of the back plate of the instrument, meeting the heel of the neck.
- 25Synonym of endbutton, part of a violin-family instrument.
- 26Synonym of adjuster.
- 27The least amount of care or interest; a whit or jot.
- 28The punchy or suspenseful line of dialogue that concludes a scene.
- 29The final joke at the end of a comedic act (such as a sketch, set, or scene).
- 30A button man; a professional assassin.
- 31The final segment of a rattlesnake's rattle.
- 32A clove (of garlic).
- 33Pedicle; the attachment point for antlers in cervids.
Etymology
From Middle English boton, botoun, from Old French boton (Modern French bouton), from Old French bouter, boter (“to push; thrust”), ultimately from a Germanic language. Doublet of bouton, Biden, and beat. More at butt.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbutton,btuton,buton,butotn,buttno,buttonn,ubtton
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for button
Misspelling Variants of "button"
Frequency rank: #2,658 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: