burn out
"burn-out" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“burn out” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To destroy by fire.
Corpus desk
Index EN-burn-out · burn out · English
burn out · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 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 out |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “burn out” in English
Rare enough to double-check
burn out is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 9 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for burn out, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is burn out, spelled B-U-R-N- -O-U-T.
Definition
- 1To destroy by fire.
- 2To become extinguished due to lack of fuel.
- 3To become nonfunctional (especially of lightbulbs or similar light-producing devices).
- 4To tire due to overwork; to overwork to one's limit.
- 5To cause (someone) to tire due to overwork; to cause (someone) to overwork to one's limit.
- 6To end one's shift at a job.
- 7To have one's tires skid against the ground; to peel off, peel out.
- 8To make (someone) unavailable for work involving exposure to ionizing radiation by employing (the person) in such work until the person's accumulated exposure reaches the maximum permitted for an administrative period, typically a year.
- 9To use up too much energy when first bowled and to therefore not finish strongly.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how burn out appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
All four engines and the entire train were derailed, and owing to the fact that all the vehicles except the sleeping cars were gas-lit, the whole of the coaching stock except the two rear brakes was burned out, beginning with the two front coaches, which were completely wrecked.
The candle finally burned out.
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.