bourse
/bʊəs/
"bourse" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bourse” is uncommon English (frequency #54,055 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,055
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A stock exchange.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bourse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bʊəs/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #54,055 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bourse” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
bourse is uncommon English at frequency #54,055 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /bʊəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for bourse in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French bourse, from Old French borse, from Latin bursa, from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa). Doublet of purse, compare Danish børs, Swedish börs, German Börse. See also bursar. The correct English form is bourse, spelled B-O-U-R-S-E.
Definition
- 1A stock exchange.
- 2A stock exchange.
- 3A meeting of stamp collectors and/or dealers, where stamps and covers are sold or exchanged.
- 4The swollen basal part of an inflorescence axis at the onset of fruit development; it bears leaves whose axillary buds differentiate and may grow out as shoots.
Etymology
Borrowed from French bourse, from Old French borse, from Latin bursa, from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa). Doublet of purse, compare Danish børs, Swedish börs, German Börse. See also bursar.
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 “bourse”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-U-R-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bʊəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.