Which to use
“boîte” and “bute” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,651
- “boîte” frequency rank
- #13,983
- “bute” frequency rank
- 15634
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | boîte | bute |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objet rigide et creux ayant la capacité de se fermer et qui a vocation à accueillir quelque chose. | Instrument de maréchal-ferrant qui sert à couper la corne des sabots des chevaux. |
Where the eye mixes boîte and bute
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: boîte vs bute
A purely visual mix-up. boîte (\bwat\) and bute (\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 15634, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
boîte is recorded at frequency rank #1,651, classified as anoun, pronounced \bwat\. bute is at rank #13,983, 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 15634, this pair ranks #391,518 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of boîte vs bute
Shared letters: bet. Private to "boîte": oî. Private to "bute": u.
"boîte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "bute" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- bute ← bbute · btue · buet · butte · ubte
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "boîte" for "bute" ever safe?
Frequency check: "boîte" vs "bute" - 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 "boîte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #391,518 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "boîte" and "bute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bury vs bute". 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 #391,518 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.