Born or bourne?
born is an adjective meaning “Having from birth (or as if from birth) a certain quality or character; innate…”; bourne is a noun meaning “A stream or brook in which water flows only seasonally; a small stream or brook”. Use born as an adjective and bourne as a noun (born is also a noun: “Alternative spelling of burn (a stream)”). They sound the same (/bɔːn/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) born is about 55 times as common as bourne.
What is the difference between born and bourne?
| born | bourne | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | noun |
| Meaning | Having from birth (or as if from birth) a certain quality or character; innate; inherited | A stream or brook in which water flows only seasonally; a small stream or brook |
| Example | In the United States, information describing the operation of nuclear weapons is born secret | none recorded |
| Forms | none | bournes |
| Pronunciation | /bɔːn/ /boɹn/ [bo̞ɹn] | /bɔːn/ /boɹn/ [bo̞ɹn] |
| In writing | 123 times per million words | 2.2 times per million words |
Sources: born and bourne in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of born and bourne
born
- 1
Having from birth (or as if from birth) a certain quality or character; innate; inherited
In the United States, information describing the operation of nuclear weapons is born secret
- 2
Alternative spelling of burn (a stream)
- 3
Alternative spelling of burn (with fire etc.)
bourne
- 1
A stream or brook in which water flows only seasonally; a small stream or brook
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, born or bourne?
born appears 123 times per million words; bourne 2.2 times per million words.
born 123 times per million wordsbourne 2.2 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).