born
/boɹn/adjective, noun, verb
born is spelled B-O-R-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 123 times per million words in written English, the 851st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “born vs borne” about 2,900 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, born means “Having from birth (or as if from birth) a certain quality or character; innate; inherited” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in born?
| Letters | 4: B-O-R-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 123 times per million words; the 851st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 born?
Born appears 123 times per million words in written English, the 851st 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 born?
- UK /bɔːn/
- US /boɹn/
- US [bo̞ɹn]
Born has one syllable (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-us-born.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with born
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: bawn, borne, bourn, bourne (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: burn.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with born?
10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as born from its last stressed vowel (/oɹn/):
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 born
- borns plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- bornin participle, present
- bornt participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does born mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 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.
verb
- 1
past participle of bear; given birth to.
Although not born in the country, she qualifies for nationality through her grandparents.
- 2
obsoletepast participle of bear in other senses.
- 3
Alternative spelling of burn (with fire etc.)
noun
- 1
Alternative spelling of burn (a stream)
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate born?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of born: b, b..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Born in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense given birth to:
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 born come from?
From Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne, from Old English boren, ġeboren, from Proto-West Germanic *boran, *gaboran, from Proto-Germanic *buranaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *beraną (“to bear, carry”), equivalent to bear + -en. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gebooren (“born”), West Frisian berne (“born”), Dutch geboren (“born”), German geboren (“born”), Swedish boren (“born”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).