Which to use
“bouton” and “button” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,405
- “bouton” frequency rank
- #27,353
- “button” frequency rank
- 31758
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bouton | button |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite pièce de diverses matières, ordinairement ronde ou plate, quelquefois bombée ou en boule, qui sert généralement à retenir ensemble différentes parties d’un vêtement et que l’on passe, à cet effet, dans les fentes appelées boutonnières, dans les ganses ou dans les brides. | Butte. |
Where the eye mixes bouton and button
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: bouton vs button
A purely visual mix-up. bouton (\bu.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 31758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bouton is recorded at frequency rank #4,405, classified as anoun, pronounced \bu.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 31758, this pair ranks #301,744 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bouton vs button
Shared letters: bnotu. Private to "bouton": -. Private to "button": -.
"bouton" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "button" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bouton" for "button" ever safe?
Which is more common, "bouton" or "button"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "bouton" 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 #301,744 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bouton" 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 #301,744 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.