but

\byt\

/\byt\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“but” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #423) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#423
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Objectif, cible.

Corpus desk

Index FR-but · but · French

but · rank #423 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #423
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH étant

Nearest frequency peer: étant (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « but »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « but » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

but vs by
33% similar
but vs BV
0% similar
but vs BX
0% similar

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

Key facts for but
PropertyValue
Headwordbut
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\byt\
Letters3
Frequency rank#423
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « but »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).butse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « étant » (#422), « cinq » (#424), « école » (#421). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « but » est au #423. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for but is neighbouring look-alikes ("by", "BV", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \byt\. Frequency #423 among 4,251 “B” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

but has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "BV", "BX", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is but, spelled B-U-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Objectif, cible.
  2. 2
    Cage dans laquelle on doit mettre la balle pour marquer.
  3. 3
    Point marqué en envoyant la balle dans la cible.
  4. 4
    Point que l’on vise.
  5. 5
    Petite boule servant de cible dans différents jeux de boules, lancée en début de mène.
  6. 6
    Base, espace matérialisé au sol par une plaque carrée, soit à la fin du tour de l’espace de jeu, soit à chacun de ses angles (espace à contourner de forme carrée).
  7. 7
    Abandon d’une ascension avant d’avoir atteint la destination prévue.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Pour atteindre ce but tous les moyens ne sont pas indifférents ; il y a des lois à observer et une marche rationnelle à suivre.
  2. Il alla jusqu'à se demander si ce n'était pas le domino blanc qui avait exécuté ce tour de passe-passe. Dans quel but ?

Synonyms

bouchoncochonnetpetit

This word in other languages

goal(English)objetivo(Español)Ziel(Deutsch)alvo(Português)

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "but"?
"but" is spelled B-U-T. The IPA pronunciation is \byt\.
What does "but" mean?
As a noun, "but" means: Objectif, cible.
What words are commonly confused with "but"?
"but" is commonly confused with "by", "BV", "BX". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "but"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "but" is \byt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "but" come from?
"but" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

etc#416rue#438sud#439Art#445

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list