Which to use
“buses” and “buttes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,198
- “buses” frequency rank
- #35,412
- “buttes” frequency rank
- 82610
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | buses | buttes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de buse. | Pluriel de butte. |
Where the eye mixes buses and buttes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. buses runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against buttes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between buses and buttes
A purely visual mix-up. buses (\byz\) 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 82610, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
buses is recorded at frequency rank #47,198, classified as anoun, pronounced \byz\. 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 82610, this pair ranks #16,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of buses vs buttes
Shared letters: besu. Private to "buses": -. Private to "buttes": t.
"buses" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "buttes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "buses" and "buttes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "buses" vs "buttes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "buses" and "buttes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "buses" 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 #16,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "buses" and "buttes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "busan 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 #16,377 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.