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PlainSpell

border

/ˈbɔɹ.dɚ/noun, verb

border is spelled B-O-R-D-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 50 times per million words in written English, the 2,041st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “boarder vs border” about 4,400 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, border means “The line or frontier area separating political or geographical regions” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of border is borders.

How many letters and syllables are in border?

Letters6: B-O-R-D-E-R
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing50 times per million words; the 2,041st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is border?

Border appears 50 times per million words in written English, the 2,041st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce border?

  • Australia /ˈbɔə.də/
  • UK /ˈbɔː.də/
  • US /ˈbɔɹ.dɚ/

Border has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-a_border.ogg, En-us-border.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with border

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

boarder vs border4,400 G

Sounds like: boarder (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with border?

5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as border from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɹdəɹ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of border

  • borders plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • bordering participle, present
  • bordered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does border mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The line or frontier area separating political or geographical regions.

    The border between Canada and USA is the longest in the world.

  2. 2

    The outer edge of something.

    the borders of the garden

  3. 3

    A decorative strip around the edge of something.

    There’s a nice frilly border around the picture frame.

  4. 4

    A strip of ground in which ornamental plants are grown.

  5. 5

    UKBorder morris or border dancing.

  6. 6

    A string that is both a prefix and a suffix of another particular string.

verb

  1. 1

    To put a border on something.

  2. 2

    To form a border around; to bound.

  3. 3

    To lie on, or adjacent to, a border of.

    Denmark borders Germany to the south.

  4. 4

    To touch at a border (with on, upon, or with).

    Connecticut borders on Massachusetts.

  5. 5

    To approach; to come near to; to verge (with on or upon).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Border in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfrontière (the line or frontier area separating various…), bord, bordure (the outer edge of something), parterre, plate-bande (a strip of ground in which ornamental plants…), délimiter ((transitive) to put a border on something)
GermanGrenze (the line or frontier area separating various…), Rand (the outer edge of something), Beet, Streifen, Rabatte (a strip of ground in which ornamental plants…), begrenzen ((transitive) to put a border on something)
Portuguesefronteira, raia (the line or frontier area separating various…), borda, margem (the outer edge of something), orlar ((transitive) to put a border on something), orla (a decorative strip around the edge of something)
Spanishborde (the outer edge of something), parterre (a strip of ground in which ornamental plants…), borde m cenefa, orla, orladura (a decorative strip around the edge of something), bordear ((transitive) to form a border around; to bound)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does border come from?

Inherited from Middle English bordure, from Old French bordeure, of Germanic origin, from Frankish *bord, equivalent to modern French bord (“a border”) + -er. Akin to Middle High German borte (“border, trim”), German Borte (“ribbon, trimming”). Doublet of bordure. More at board. Not cognate to beard, although inside Germanic there may have been influence between the senses of these two roots: see e.g. Old Norse barð (“edge”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after border