Which to use
“basée” is an adjective and “butée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,126
- “basée” frequency rank
- #46,043
- “butée” frequency rank
- 50169
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | basée | butée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de basé. | Dispositif servant à délimiter la course d’une pièce mobile. |
Where the eye mixes basée and butée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. basée and butée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses basée with butée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: basée is \ba.ze\ while butée is \by.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50169, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
basée is recorded at frequency rank #4,126, classified as anadj, pronounced \ba.ze\. butée is at rank #46,043, tagged as anoun, pronounced \by.te\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 50169, this pair ranks #164,749 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of basée vs butée
Shared letters: beé. Private to "basée": as. Private to "butée": tu.
"basée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "butée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "basée" and "butée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "basée" or "butée"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "basée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "butée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #164,749 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "basée" and "butée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "buses vs butée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #164,749 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.