Which to use
“bulbes” and “buttes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,687
- “bulbes” frequency rank
- #35,412
- “buttes” frequency rank
- 77099
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bulbes | buttes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de bulbe. | Pluriel de butte. |
Where the eye mixes bulbes and buttes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bulbes and buttes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: bulbes vs buttes
A purely visual mix-up. bulbes (\bylb\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77099, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bulbes is recorded at frequency rank #41,687, classified as anoun, pronounced \bylb\. 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 77099, this pair ranks #29,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bulbes vs buttes
Shared letters: besu. Private to "bulbes": l. Private to "buttes": t.
"bulbes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "buttes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bulbes" and "buttes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "bulbes" or "buttes"?
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 "bulbes" 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 #29,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bulbes" and "buttes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bulbes vs buses". 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 #29,322 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.