bourne
/bɔːn/
"bourne" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bourne” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #18,255 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #18,255
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A boundary; a limit.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bourne |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɔːn/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #18,255 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bourne” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bourne is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɔːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #18,255 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for bourne, with forms such as "bbourne", "borune", and "bounre". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "burn", "burns", "burnt", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French borne, from Old French bodne, from Medieval Latin bodina, a word of unknown ultimate origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom, base”), see also Proto-Celtic *bundos. The correct English form is bourne, spelled B-O-U-R-N-E.
Definition
- 1A boundary; a limit.
- 2A goal or destination.
Etymology
From Middle French borne, from Old French bodne, from Medieval Latin bodina, a word of unknown ultimate origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom, base”), see also Proto-Celtic *bundos.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbourne,borune,bounre,bouren,bournne,bourrne,buorne,oburne
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bourne - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “bourne”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-U-R-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɔːn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “burn” - see the side-by-side comparison. bourne vs burn
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.