Bur or burr?
bur is a noun meaning “A rough, prickly husk around the seeds or fruit of some plants”; burr is a noun meaning “A sharp, pointy object, such as a sliver or splinter”. They sound the same (/bɝ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) burr is about 4.1 times as common as bur.
What is the difference between bur and burr?
| bur | burr | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A rough, prickly husk around the seeds or fruit of some plants Any of several plants having such husks | A sharp, pointy object, such as a sliver or splinter A small piece of material left on an edge after a cutting operation To grind using a burr (revolving disk or cone with abrasive surfaces) |
| Example | none recorded | You left a bunch of burrs on those parts yesterday. You've already been told not to miss the deburring operation |
| Forms | burs | burrs |
| Pronunciation | /bɝ/ /bɜː/ /bʌr/ | /bɝ/ /bɜː/ /bʌr/ |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | 2.3 times per million words |
Sources: bur and burr 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 bur and burr
bur
- 1
A rough, prickly husk around the seeds or fruit of some plants
- 2
Abbreviation of buried
- 3
Any of several plants having such husks
- 4
A rotary cutting implement having a selection of variously shaped heads
- 5
Alternative form of burr (“small piece of material”)
burr
- 1
A sharp, pointy object, such as a sliver or splinter
- 2
To grind using a burr (revolving disk or cone with abrasive surfaces)
- 3
A rough humming sound
- 4
To pronounce with a uvular "r"
- 5
Synonym of brough (“halo around the sun or moon”)
- 6
UKAlternative spelling of burl
- 7
Alternative form of bur (“rough, prickly husk around the seeds or fruit of some plants”)
- 8
A uvular "r" sound, or (by extension) an accent characterized by this sound
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, bur or burr?
bur appears about once in every 2 million words; burr 2.3 times per million words.
bur about once in every 2 million wordsburr 2.3 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search bur vs burr?
“bur vs burr” is searched about 260 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“burr vs bur”, “bur or burr”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.