Which to use
“baston” and “button” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,119
- “baston” frequency rank
- #27,353
- “button” frequency rank
- 51472
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | baston | button |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bagarre, bastonnade. | Butte. |
Where the eye mixes baston and button
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses baston with button
A purely visual mix-up. baston (\bas.tɔ̃\) and button (\by.tɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51472, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
baston is recorded at frequency rank #24,119, classified as anoun, pronounced \bas.tɔ̃\. button is at rank #27,353, tagged as anoun, pronounced \by.tɔ̃\.
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 51472, this pair ranks #154,736 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of baston vs button
Shared letters: bnot. Private to "baston": as. Private to "button": u.
"baston" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "button" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "baston" for "button" ever safe?
Frequency check: "baston" vs "button" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "baston" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "button" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #154,736 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "baston" and "button" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beton vs button". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #154,736 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.