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bourn

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bourn", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "bourn" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "bourn" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

bourn is aEnglishnoun. It means: Alternative form of bourne (“small stream or brook”). Pronounced /bɔːn/.

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Key facts for bourn
PropertyValue
Headwordbourn
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/bɔːn/
Letters5
Frequency rank#78,425
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of bourn in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for bourn is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɔːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #78,425 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Alternative form of bourne (“small stream or brook”).".

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for bourn in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is bourn, spelled B-O-U-R-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Alternative form of bourne (“small stream or brook”).

Frequency rank: #78,425 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bourn"?
"bourn" is spelled B-O-U-R-N. The IPA pronunciation is /bɔːn/.
What does "bourn" mean?
As a noun, "bourn" means: Alternative form of bourne (“small stream or brook”).
How do you pronounce "bourn"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bourn" is /bɔːn/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bourn" come from?
"bourn" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.