burnish

burn·ish/ˈbɝnɪʃ/verb, noun

burnish is spelled B-U-R-N-I-S-H: 7 letters and 2 syllables (burn·ish). It appears about once in every 9 million words in written English, the 90,432nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, burnish means “To make (something, such as a surface) bright, shiny, and smooth by, or (by extension) as if by, rubbing; to polish, to shine” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in burnish?

Letters	7: B-U-R-N-I-S-H
Syllables	2: burn·ish
In writing	about once in every 9 million words; the 90,432nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search
Rhymes with	furnish

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 burnish?

Burnish appears about once in every 9 million words in written English, the 90,432nd most frequent word form in the list.

burnish0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce burnish?

UK /ˈbɜːnɪʃ/
US /ˈbɝnɪʃ/

Burnish has 2 syllables, split burn·ish in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-burnish.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with burnish?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as burnish from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹnɪʃ/):

furnish

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 burnish

burnishes present, singular, he/she/it, plural
burnishing participle, present
burnished participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

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

What does burnish mean?

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

verb

1
To make (something, such as a surface) bright, shiny, and smooth by, or (by extension) as if by, rubbing; to polish, to shine.
In pottery, a stone is sometimes used to burnish a pot before firing, giving it a smooth, shiny look.
2
Of a stag: to remove the velvet (“skin and fine fur”) from (its antlers) by rubbing them against something; to velvet.
3
To make (someone or something) appear positive and highly respected.
4
To become bright, glossy, and smooth; to brighten, to gleam, to shine forth.
5
Of a person's body: to grow large or stout; to fatten, to fill out.
6
Of a thing: to increase in size; to expand, to spread out, to swell.

noun

1
A shine of something which has been polished; a lustre, a polish.
2
A shiny layer applied to a surface or other thing.
3
The making of something bright, shiny, and smooth by, or (by extension) as if by, rubbing; (countable) an instance of this; a burnishing, a polishing, a shining.
With a good burnish, the old table should fetch a higher price.