Which to use
“bute” and “butée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,983
- “bute” frequency rank
- #46,043
- “butée” frequency rank
- 60026
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bute | butée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Instrument de maréchal-ferrant qui sert à couper la corne des sabots des chevaux. | Dispositif servant à délimiter la course d’une pièce mobile. |
Where the eye mixes bute and butée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses bute with butée
A purely visual mix-up. bute (\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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60026, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bute is recorded at frequency rank #13,983, 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 60026, this pair ranks #99,865 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bute vs butée
Shared letters: betu. Private to "bute": -. Private to "butée": é.
"bute" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "butée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- bute ← bbute · btue · buet · butte · ubte
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bute" and "butée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "bute" or "butée"?
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 "bute" 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 #99,865 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bute" and "butée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "buses vs butée". 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 #99,865 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.