butter

butter — noun

1. a soft, pale-yellow food made by churning the fatty part of milk; people put it

1.nounA1
Definition

a soft, pale-yellow food made by churning the fatty part of milk; people put it on bread or use it for cooking and baking.

Example

Lina spread soft butter on her warm toast for breakfast.

spread + butter + on bread / toast

Grandma melted a little butter in the pan before adding the eggs.

melt + butter (cooking)

Common collocations
  • unsalted butter
  • melted butter
  • a pat of butter
  • a stick of butter
  • spread butter on toast
Synonyms
  • margarine

    a cheaper plant-oil substitute; not real dairy butter

  • spread

    general word for any soft food you put on bread, including butter

Usage Note

Uncountable in this sense; say 'some butter' or 'a piece of butter', not 'a butter'. To count portions, use 'a pat of butter', 'a stick of butter', or 'a knob of butter'.

Common Mistakes

Can I have a butter, please?
Can I have some butter, please?
butter is uncountable here; use 'some' or a unit like 'a pat of'.

2. a thick, soft paste made by crushing nuts or seeds, eaten as food (like peanut b

2.nounA2
Definition

a thick, soft paste made by crushing nuts or seeds, eaten as food (like peanut butter) or used in skin and hair products (like shea butter).

Example

Yuki packed peanut butter sandwiches for the school trip on Friday.

peanut butter (food, compound noun)

This hand cream contains shea butter from West Africa.

shea butter (cosmetic ingredient)

Common collocations
  • peanut butter
  • almond butter
  • cashew butter
  • shea butter
  • cocoa butter
Synonyms
  • paste

    a more general word for any thick, smooth, spreadable mixture

  • spread

    any soft food put on bread, including nut butters

Grammar Patterns

[noun] + butter (e.g. peanut butter, almond butter, shea butter)

Usage Note

Almost always appears as a compound: 'peanut/almond/cashew/shea/cocoa butter'. Standing alone, just 'butter' usually means the dairy spread (sense 1).

Common Mistakes

I love butter from peanuts.
I love peanut butter.
English uses the compound 'peanut butter', not 'butter from peanuts'.

3. a sweet, smooth preserve made by slowly cooking fruit with sugar until it become

3.nounB2
Definition

a sweet, smooth preserve made by slowly cooking fruit with sugar until it becomes thick enough to put on bread, often with no actual butter inside.

Example

Aunt Rosa makes apple butter every autumn and stores it in mason jars.

apple butter (compound)

The farmers' market sells homemade pumpkin butter and pear butter near the bakery.

pumpkin butter / pear butter

Common collocations
  • apple butter
  • pumpkin butter
  • pear butter
  • homemade fruit butter
Synonyms
  • jam

    a fruit spread that keeps pieces of fruit; fruit butter is smoother and thicker

  • preserve

    an umbrella word for jams, jellies, and fruit butters

  • conserve

    a fancier word for a thick fruit preserve, often with whole fruit

Grammar Patterns

[fruit] + butter (e.g. apple butter, pumpkin butter)

Usage Note

Used as a compound with a fruit name ('apple butter', 'pumpkin butter'). Distinguish from sense 1: this contains no dairy. Most common in American English; British speakers may say 'fruit cheese' or 'curd' for similar products.

Idioms

butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth

idiom

looking sweet and innocent, while actually being naughty or willing to cause trouble.

Little Mia stares at the broken vase as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

The boss seems polite at meetings, but butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

like a knife through butter

idiom

very smoothly and easily, with almost no effort or resistance.

The new electric saw cut through the tree branch like a knife through butter.

Coach Tanaka's team ran through the defenders like a knife through butter.

butter wouldn’t melt (in somebody’s mouth)

idiom

This idiom describes someone who pretends to be innocent or nice but is not really that way.

Maya looked so sweet, but butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.

Don't trust his shy smile; butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

butter — verb

Word family

  • buttery
    adjectiveB2
  • buttered
    adjectiveA2
  • buttercup
    nounB2
  • butterfly
    nounA1
  • buttermilk
    nounB2
  • butterscotch
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four are soft foods you can put on bread, but they differ in source and use. Butter is the original dairy product, churned from cream — rich, slightly salty, and the standard choice in baking when flavour matters. Margarine is a plant-oil substitute invented as a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative; it spreads more easily straight from the fridge but tastes less full. Spread is the broadest, most neutral word: it covers butter, margarine, and low-fat hybrids, and is common on supermarket labels ('low-fat spread'). Ghee is butter that has been gently heated to remove the milk solids; it stays good without refrigeration and is central to South Asian cooking. Quick rule of thumb: in a recipe that says 'butter', use real butter for flavour; in a sandwich, any spread will do.

butter ↗margarinespread ↗ghee

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • bread and butter
  • butter and jam
  • a knob of butter
  • salted/unsalted butter
  • melt the butter

Prepositions

  • on (bread/toast)
  • with (mortar/glue)
  • in (a pan)

Etymology

GreekLatinOld EnglishEnglish

Butter came into English very early, before the year 1000, from Old English 'butere'. That came from Latin 'butyrum', which itself came from Greek 'boutyron'. The Greek word is usually explained as a blend of 'bous' (cow) plus 'tyros' (cheese) — literally 'cow cheese' — though some scholars think the Greeks borrowed it from a Scythian or Thracian word and reshaped it to look Greek. The verb 'to butter' (put butter on something) appeared in the 1500s, and the figurative phrasal verb 'butter someone up' is recorded from the early 1700s.