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PlainSpell

burden

/ˈbɝdn̩/noun, verb

burden is spelled B-U-R-D-E-N: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,838th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, burden means “A heavy load” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of burden is burdens.

How many letters and syllables are in burden?

Letters6: B-U-R-D-E-N
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing17 times per million words; the 4,838th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is burden?

Burden appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,838th 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 burden?

  • UK /ˈbɜːdn̩/
  • US /ˈbɝdn̩/
  • /bʌɾdn̩/

Burden 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-us-burden.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with burden?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as burden from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹdn/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: burned, bunder.

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 burden

  • burdens plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • burdening participle, present
  • burdened participle, past

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

What does burden mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A heavy load.

  2. 2

    A responsibility, onus.

  3. 3

    A cause of worry; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive.

  4. 4

    The capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry.

    a ship of a hundred tons burden

  5. 5

    The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.

  6. 6

    The proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace.

  7. 7

    A fixed quantity of certain commodities.

    A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.

  8. 8

    obsoleterareA birth.

    … that bore thee at a burden two fair sons.

  9. 9

    A phrase or theme that recurs at the end of each verse in a folk song or ballad.

  10. 10

    The drone of a bagpipe.

  11. 11

    A theme, a core idea.

    the burden of the argument

verb

  1. 1

    To encumber with a burden.

    to burden a nation with taxes

  2. 2

    To impose, as a load or burden; to lay or place as a burden (something heavy or objectionable).

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

Burden in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcharge, fardeau (heavy load), incomber (encumber)
GermanBelastung, Last, Bürde (heavy load), belasten, beladen, beschweren (encumber)
Portuguesecarga, fardo (heavy load), carregar (encumber), responsabilidade, obrigação (responsibility, onus), preocupação (cause of worry)
Spanishgravar, endilgar (encumber), carga, lastre, rémora, pejiguera (responsibility, onus)

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 burden come from?

Inherited from Middle English birthene, birthen, birden, from Old English byrden, byrþen, from Proto-West Germanic *burþini, from *burþī, from Proto-Germanic *burþį̄, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”).

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

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