butinvsbuttonWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,732
“butin” frequency rank
#27,353
“button” frequency rank
40085
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature butin button
Definition Ce que l’on prend sur les ennemis. Butte.

Where the eye mixes butin and button

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
butin
6 ch
button

Visual trap between butin and button

A purely visual mix-up. butin (\by.tɛ̃\) and button (\by.tɔ̃\) 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 40085, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

butin is recorded at frequency rank #12,732, classified as anoun, pronounced \by.tɛ̃\. button is at rank #27,353, tagged as anoun, pronounced \by.tɔ̃\.

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 40085, this pair ranks #243,158 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of butin vs button

Shared letters: bntu. Private to "butin": i. Private to "button": o.

"butin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "button" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • butinbbutin · btuin · buitn · butinn · butni · buttin · ubtin
  • buttonbbutton · btuton · buton · butotn · buttno · buttonn · ubtton

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "butin" and "button" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\by.tɛ̃\ versus \by.tɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "butin" or "button"?
"butin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,732 in our French list, against #27,353 for "button". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "butin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "button" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #243,158 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "butin" and "button" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beton vs button". 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 #243,158 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