burial
/ˈbɛɹi.əl/noun
burial is spelled B-U-R-I-A-L: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 7.9 times per million words in written English, the 8,266th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, burial means “The act of burying; interment; placing remains into the earth” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of burial is burials.
How many letters and syllables are in burial?
| Letters | 6: B-U-R-I-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 7.9 times per million words; the 8,266th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
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 burial?
Burial appears 7.9 times per million words in written English, the 8,266th 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 burial?
- UK /ˈbɛɹi.əl/
- US /ˈbɛɹi.əl/
- US /ˈbɝi.əl/
Burial has 3 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-ne-burial.ogg, En-us-burial.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with burial?
7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as burial from its last stressed vowel (/ɛɹiəl/):
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 burial
- burials plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does burial mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of burying; interment; placing remains into the earth.
His whole family was present at his burial.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Burial in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense interment:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | enterrement, inhumation, sépulture, ensevelissement |
| German | Begräbnis |
| Portuguese | enterro, sepultura, sepultamento, inumação |
| Spanish | entierro, soterramiento, enterramiento, sepultura, sepultamiento, sepelio |
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 burial come from?
From Middle English biriel, a backformation from biriels, which was re-interpreted as a plural, itself from from Old English byrġels, from byrġan (“to bury”) + -els. By surface analysis, bury + -al, but originally unrelated to this suffix.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).