Which to use
“bette” and “buttes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,827
- “bette” frequency rank
- #35,412
- “buttes” frequency rank
- 71239
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bette | buttes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Beta, genre de plantes de la famille des Amaranthacées. | Pluriel de butte. |
Where the eye mixes bette and buttes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bette runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against buttes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between bette and buttes
A purely visual mix-up. bette (\bɛt\) and buttes (\byt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71239, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bette is recorded at frequency rank #35,827, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɛt\. buttes is at rank #35,412, tagged as anoun, pronounced \byt\.
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 71239, this pair ranks #48,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bette vs buttes
Shared letters: bet. Private to "bette": -. Private to "buttes": su.
"bette" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "buttes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bette" for "buttes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "bette" or "buttes"?
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 "bette" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "buttes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bette" and "buttes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beton vs bette". 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 #48,307 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.