"butter" meaning in English

See butter in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈbʌtə/ [UK], /ˈbʌɾ.ɚ/ [US] Audio: en-uk-butter.ogg [UK], en-us-butter.ogg [US] Forms: butter [singular], butters [plural]
enPR: bŭtʹər [US] Head templates: {{noun}} [POS TABLE]
  1. Butter is a firm yellow substance that is made from milk spread on bread or used in cooking.
    Sense id: simple-butter-en-noun-s6gvRl7c
  2. A bread and butter issue, is a basic and important one.
    Sense id: simple-butter-en-noun-bulWeDe3
  3. Your bread and butter is the work that you do most and that earns you the most money.
    Sense id: simple-butter-en-noun-V8dyETRd

Verb

IPA: /ˈbʌtə/ [UK], /ˈbʌɾ.ɚ/ [US] Audio: en-uk-butter.ogg [UK], en-us-butter.ogg [US] Forms: butter [canonical], butters [third-person, singular], buttered [past], buttered [past, participle], buttering [present, participle]
enPR: bŭtʹər [US] Head templates: {{verb}} [POS TABLE]
  1. If you butter something, you put butter on it.
    Sense id: simple-butter-en-verb-Ft7d7gj5
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "butter",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "butters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Please pass the butter."
        },
        {
          "text": "Melt some butter in a fry pan, and then add the eggs."
        },
        {
          "text": "If you keep the butter in the fridge, it's too hard to put on bread."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Butter is a firm yellow substance that is made from milk spread on bread or used in cooking."
      ],
      "id": "simple-butter-en-noun-s6gvRl7c",
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If we want to win this election, we need to focus on bread and butter issues like jobs."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A bread and butter issue, is a basic and important one."
      ],
      "id": "simple-butter-en-noun-bulWeDe3",
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Fixing shoes used to be our bread and butter, but today, nobody gets their shoes fixed."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Your bread and butter is the work that you do most and that earns you the most money."
      ],
      "id": "simple-butter-en-noun-V8dyETRd",
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʌtə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"bVt.@/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "bŭtʹər",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʌɾ.ɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"bV4.@`/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-butter.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-butter.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "butter"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "butter",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "butters",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "buttered",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "buttered",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "buttering",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Would you like me to butter your toast for you?"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you butter something, you put butter on it."
      ],
      "id": "simple-butter-en-verb-Ft7d7gj5"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʌtə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"bVt.@/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "bŭtʹər",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʌɾ.ɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"bV4.@`/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-butter.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-butter.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "butter"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "butter",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "butters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Please pass the butter."
        },
        {
          "text": "Melt some butter in a fry pan, and then add the eggs."
        },
        {
          "text": "If you keep the butter in the fridge, it's too hard to put on bread."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Butter is a firm yellow substance that is made from milk spread on bread or used in cooking."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If we want to win this election, we need to focus on bread and butter issues like jobs."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A bread and butter issue, is a basic and important one."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Fixing shoes used to be our bread and butter, but today, nobody gets their shoes fixed."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Your bread and butter is the work that you do most and that earns you the most money."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʌtə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"bVt.@/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "bŭtʹər",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʌɾ.ɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"bV4.@`/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-butter.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-butter.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "butter"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "butter",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "butters",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "buttered",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "buttered",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "buttering",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Would you like me to butter your toast for you?"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you butter something, you put butter on it."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʌtə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"bVt.@/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "bŭtʹər",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʌɾ.ɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"bV4.@`/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-butter.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-butter.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "butter"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-15 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (ca09fec and c40eb85). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.