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PlainSpell

burgeon

/ˈbɝː.d͡ʒən/verb

burgeon is a verb meaning “To grow or expand” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled B-U-R-G-E-O-N and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 22 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does burgeon mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To grow or expand.

    Gradually, the town burgeoned into a thriving city.

  2. 2

    To swell to the point of bursting.

  3. 3

    archaicOf plants, to bloom, bud.

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteA bud, sprout, or shoot.

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

How do you pronounce burgeon?

  • UK /ˈbɜː.d͡ʒən/
  • US /ˈbɝː.d͡ʒən/
  • Australia /ˈbɜː.d͡ʒən/

Burgeon 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-burgeon.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of burgeon

  • burgeons present, singular, he/she/it
  • burgeoning participle, present
  • burgeoned participle, past

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

How common is burgeon?

Burgeon appears about once in every 22 million words in written English, the 143,405th 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).

Burgeon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbourgeon (bud, sprout, shoot), croître (to grow or expand), bourgeonnerr (to swell to the point of bursting), fleurir, bourgeonner (of plants, to bloom, bud)
Spanishbrote, retoño (bud, sprout, shoot), medrar (to grow or expand), florecer, retoñar (of plants, to bloom, bud)
Germansprießen (to grow or expand)
Portuguesedesabrochar (to grow or expand)

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 burgeon come from?

From Middle English burjounen, from Old French borjoner, bourjoner, burjuner.

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