Which to use
“but” and “butée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #423
- “but” frequency rank
- #46,043
- “butée” frequency rank
- 46466
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | but | butée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objectif, cible. | Dispositif servant à délimiter la course d’une pièce mobile. |
Where the eye mixes but and butée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. but runs 3 letters (CVC) against butée's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: but vs butée
A purely visual mix-up. but (\byt\) and butée (\by.te\) 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 extra letter(s) - “but” sits inside “butée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
but is recorded at frequency rank #423, classified as anoun, pronounced \byt\. butée is at rank #46,043, tagged as anoun, pronounced \by.te\.
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 46466, this pair ranks #194,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of but vs butée
Shared letters: btu. Private to "but": -. Private to "butée": eé.
"but" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "butée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "but" and "butée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "but" or "butée"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "but" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "butée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #194,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "but" and "butée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "buses vs butée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #194,706 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.