butte
French, noun
butte is spelled B-U-T-T-E (5 letters) and appears 3.3 times per million words in written French, the 14,875th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Butte is a French feminine noun meaning “small hill, mound, hillock; knoll” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With an accent, butté is a different word: “past participle of butter”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Petit tertre, petite colline”.
What does butte mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininesmall hill, mound, hillock; knoll
- 2
feminineheap
Faire une butte autour des plantes de pomme de terre.
- 3
femininea mound of dirt upon which targets were placed to practice shooting
- 4
femininebutt, target
verb
- 1
past participle of butter
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Petit tertre, petite colline. 2. Massif de terre où l’on place le but pour tirer et viser. 3. Cible, victime. 4. Jeu des chevaliers de l’arquebuse.
adjective: 1. Variante de buté, en parlant du chien. 2. Qui a reçu un buttage.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of butte
- buttes plural
- buttée feminine
- buttés masculine plural
- buttées feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to butte
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is butte in French?
butte appears 3.3 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).