burn one's bridges
"burn-one-s-bridges" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“burn one's bridges” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To destroy one's path, connections, reputation, opportunities, etc., particularly intentionally.
Corpus desk
Index EN-burn-one-s-bridges · burn one's bridges · English
burn one's bridges · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | burn one's bridges |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “burn one's bridges” in English
Rare enough to double-check
burn one's bridges is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To destroy one's path, connections, reputation, opportunities, etc., particularly intentionally.".
No misspelling variants are generated for burn one's bridges in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Originally in military sense of intentionally cutting off one's own retreat (burning a bridge one has crossed) to commit oneself to a course of action, later used primarily to mean “alienate former friends”. The correct English form is burn one's bridges, spelled B-U-R-N- -O-N-E-'-S- -B-R-I-D-G-E-S.
Definition
- 1To destroy one's path, connections, reputation, opportunities, etc., particularly intentionally.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how burn one's bridges appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Even if you are dismissed from a job in the worst way, take care not to burn your bridges with unseemly comments on the way out, since you never know who you will meet again.
Etymology
Originally in military sense of intentionally cutting off one's own retreat (burning a bridge one has crossed) to commit oneself to a course of action, later used primarily to mean “alienate former friends”.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.