From Middle English but, buten, boute, bouten, from Old English būtan, from Proto-West Germanic *biūtan, *biūtini, equivalent to be- + out.

Eclipsed non-native Middle English mes (“but”) borrowed from Old French mes, mais (> French mais (“but”)).

• (stressed, British) IPA: /bʌt/, [bɐt], enPR: bŭt
• (stressed, America) IPA: /bʌt/, enPR: bŭt
• (stressed, Northern England) IPA: /bʊt/
• (unstressed) IPA: /bət/, enPR: bət

1. Apart from, except (for), excluding.

   Synonyms: barring, except for, save for, Thesaurus:except

   Everyone but Father left early.

   I like everything but that.

   Nobody answered the door when I knocked, so I had no choice but to leave.

2. (obsolete, outside, Scotland) Outside of.

   Away but the hoose and tell me whae's there.

but (not comparable)

1. (chiefly literary or poetic) Merely, only, just, no more than

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:merely

   Christmas comes but once a year.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 2 Kings 7:4 ↗:

     If they kill us, we shall but die.

   • 1791, Robert Burns, Ae Fond Kiss:

     For to see her was to love her,
     Love but her, and love for ever.

   • 1854 August 8, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC ↗:

     In those days, when my hands were much employed, I read but little, but the least scraps of paper which lay on the ground, my holder, or tablecloth, afforded me as much entertainment, in fact answered the same purpose as the Iliad.

   • 1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC ↗:

     Now the Wicked Witch of the West had but one eye, yet that was as powerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere.

   • 1975, Monty Python, Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

     Black Knight: "'Tis but a scratch." King Arthur: "A scratch? Your arm's off!"

2. (Australian, Geordie, conjunctive) Though, however.

   Synonyms: even so, nevertheless, notwithstanding, yet, Thesaurus:nevertheless

   I'll have to go home early but.

1. however, although, nevertheless, on the other hand (introducing a clause contrary to prior belief or in contrast with the preceding clause or sentence).

   She is very old but still attractive.

   You told me I could do that, but she said that I could not.

2. on the contrary, rather (as a regular adversative conjunction, introducing a word or clause in contrast or contradiction with the preceding negative clause or sentence).

   I am not rich but [I am] poor.  Not John but Peter went there.

3. (colloquial)

   But I never said you could do that!

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume IV, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC ↗, book X:

     In reality, I apprehend every amorous widow on the stage would run the hazard of being condemned as a servile imitation of Dido, but that happily very few of our play-house critics understand enough of Latin to read Virgil.

4. Except that (introducing a subordinate clause which qualifies a negative statement); also, with omission of the subject of the subordinate clause, acting as a negative relative, "except one that", "except such that".

   I cannot but feel offended.

   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
     From this day to the ending of the world,
     ''But we in it shall be rememberèd—

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 15, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:

     There is no reason but hath another contrary unto it, saith the wisest party of Philosophers.

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iv]:

     And but my noble Moor is true of mind
     […] it were enough to put him to ill thinking.

   • 1819, John Keats, “Lamia”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC ↗, part II, page 43 ↗:

     A deadly silence step by step increased,
     Until it seem'd a horrid presence there,
     And not a man but felt the terror in his hair.

   • 1854 August 8, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC ↗:

     In those days, when my hands were much employed, I read but little, but the least scraps of paper which lay on the ground, my holder, or tablecloth, afforded me as much entertainment, in fact answered the same purpose as the Iliad.

5. (colloquial) Used to link an interjection to the following remark as an intensifier.

   Wow! But that's amazing!

6. (archaic) Without it also being the case that; unless that (introducing a necessary concomitant).

   It never rains but it pours.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     No arboret with painted blossomes drest, / And smelling sweet, but there it might be found […]

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene ii]:

     For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so

7. (obsolete) Except with; unless with; without.
   • 1639, Thomas Fuller, “Unseasonable Discords betwixt King Baldwine and His Mother; Her Strength in Yeelding to Her Sonne”, in The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to the Universitie of Cambridge [and sold by John Williams, London], →OCLC ↗, book II, page 84 ↗:

     This man unable to manage his own happineſſe, grew ſo inſolent that he could not go, but either ſpurning his equals, or trampling on his inferiours.

8. (obsolete) Only; solely; merely.
   • 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC ↗:

     Observe but how their own principles combat one another.

   • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid's Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:

     a formidable man but to his friends

9. (obsolete) Until.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     'Tshall not be long but I'll be here again.

10. (obsolete, following a negated expression of improbability) That. [16th–19th c.]

• abbur (Chester)
• (except) bar, unless, excepting, excluding, with the exception of, without
• (however) yet, although, ac

• French: mais, cependant
• German: aber, aber trotzdem
• Italian: ma, però, tuttavia
• Portuguese: embora, mas
• Russian: но
• Spanish: aunque, pero, mas, empero

• French: mais
• German: sondern, aber
• Italian: ma, però, tuttavia
• Portuguese: mas, porém
• Russian: но
• Spanish: sino

• French: sauf, en dehors de
• German: außer, aber nicht, als (only after negative sentences)
• Italian: eccetto, salvo, a parte, tranne
• Portuguese: exceto, salvo
• Russian: кро́ме
• Spanish: excepto, salvo, sino, mas

• French: que, seulement
• German: nur
• Russian: то́лько
• Spanish: sólo, solamente

but (plural buts)

1. An instance of using the word "but"; an objection or caveat.

   It has to be done—no ifs, ands, or buts.

   But—and this is a big but—you have to come home by sundown.

2. (Scotland) The outer room of a small two-room cottage.
3. A limit; a boundary.
4. The end; especially the larger or thicker end, or the blunt, in distinction from the sharp, end; the butt.

but (third-person singular simple present buts, present participle butting, simple past and past participle butted)

1. (archaic) Use the word "but".

   But me no buts.

1. Surname.