boutonsvsboutsTell them apart

Which to use

“boutons” and “bouts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,789
“boutons” frequency rank
#8,966
“bouts” frequency rank
15755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature boutons bouts
Definition Pluriel de bouton. Pluriel de bout.

Where the eye mixes boutons and bouts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
boutons
5 ch
bouts

Visual trap between boutons and bouts

A purely visual mix-up. boutons (\bu.tɔ̃\) and bouts (\bu\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

boutons is recorded at frequency rank #6,789, classified as anoun, pronounced \bu.tɔ̃\. bouts is at rank #8,966, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bu\.

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 15755, this pair ranks #390,967 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of boutons vs bouts

Shared letters: bostu. Private to "boutons": n. Private to "bouts": -.

"boutons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "bouts" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • boutonsbboutons · botuons · bouotns · boutnos · boutonns · boutonss · boutosn · bouttons
  • boutsbbouts · botus · boust · boutss · boutts · buots · obuts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "boutons" and "bouts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\bu.tɔ̃\ versus \bu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "boutons" or "bouts"?
"boutons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,789 in our French list, against #8,966 for "bouts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "boutons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bouts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #390,967 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "boutons" and "bouts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boers vs bouts". 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 #390,967 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list