butter

noun

ˈbə-tər How to pronounce butter (audio)
Definition of butternext
as in flattery
excessive praise a junior exec who was laying on the butter so thickly that her colleagues were ready to gag

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for butter
  1. flattery
  2. praise
  3. soft soap
  4. sweet talk
  5. adulation
  6. acclaim
Noun
  • Told that imitation is the highest form of flattery, Steele guffaws.
    — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 21 Aug. 2026
  • Scam Buster is a bot that will reply to scammers in your inbox, placating them with the same social engineering tactics that scammers use, such as impersonation, flattery, and urgent messaging.
    — Kim Key, PC Magazine, 8 Aug. 2026
Definition of flattery
Noun
  • The pivot generated brilliant press, local political praise, and high trustee engagement.
    — Aparna Rae, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2026
  • Your album has been receiving a lot of praise from fans and critics.
    — Kailyn Brown, Los Angeles Times, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of praise
Noun
  • People should wash any skin that comes into contact with the slurry with water and soft soap, before using a hand cream to avoid dryness and cracking.
    — Lauren Penington, The Denver Post, 2 Sep. 2024
  • Founder and creative director Joy Cho’s lifestyle brand offers whimsical products, spanning bandages to soft soap, as well as regular editorial content online.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 31 Mar. 2021
Definition of soft soap
Noun
  • Really, what writer, no matter how detached from their past, could resist that kind of sweet talk?
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Watch an encounter full of sweet talk, gaslighting and tension here.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 14 Feb. 2026
Definition of sweet talk
Noun
  • What might her bandmate Daniela Avanzini have to say in a song about their past year of adulation and never-ending scrutiny?
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 21 Aug. 2026
  • The adulation was directed at Harvey Levin, the co-creator and editor of the tabloid news organization.
    — Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 22 July 2026
Definition of adulation
Noun
  • Pfeiffer received critical acclaim for her TV performances this year in Apple TV’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Paramount+’s The Madison.
    — Mariel Turner, HollywoodReporter, 21 Aug. 2026
  • Anderson has garnered critical and mainstream acclaim in recent years thanks to dramatic and comedic turns including The Last Showgirl — which got her a Golden Globe nomination — and the Naked Gun reboot from Paramount.
    — Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of acclaim
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Phrases Containing butter

Browse Nearby Words

butted (on or against)
butter
buttered up
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Butter.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/butter. Accessed 28 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on butter

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about butter

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of cogent

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Aug. 28

Why do we say 'break a leg'?
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
skateboard-dog-hat
Wordmaxxing Slang Quiz Give your vocabulary a glow up by getting sendy w...
See All