Which to use
“Butt” and “button” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,624
- “Butt” frequency rank
- #27,353
- “button” frequency rank
- 73977
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Butt | button |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Flet, fléteau Platichthys flesus | Butte. |
Where the eye mixes Butt and button
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Butt and button
A purely visual mix-up. Butt (\bʊt\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “Butt” sits inside “button”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73977, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Butt is recorded at frequency rank #46,624, classified as anoun, pronounced \bʊt\. 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 73977, this pair ranks #38,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Butt vs button
Shared letters: btu. Private to "Butt": -. Private to "button": no.
"Butt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "button" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Butt" for "button" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Butt" or "button"?
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 "Butt" 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 #38,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Butt" and "button" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bury vs Butt". 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 #38,688 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.