burnout
/ˈbɜː(ɹ)naʊt/noun
burnout is spelled B-U-R-N-O-U-T: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, burnout means “The experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest, especially in one's career” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of burnout is burnouts.
How many letters and syllables are in burnout?
| Letters | 7: B-U-R-N-O-U-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.4 times per million words; the 23,835th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is burnout?
Burnout appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th 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 burnout?
- /ˈbɜː(ɹ)naʊt/
Burnout 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-au-burnout.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with burnout
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: burn-out (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of burnout
- burnouts plural
- burn-out
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does burnout mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest, especially in one's career.
- 2
A person who has the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest.
Ten years of this soul-sucking job would turn any ambitious young person into a burnout.
- 3
A feeling of being overwhelmed and exhausted from stress and overwork, rendering one cynical, uncaring or depression.
- 4
USslangSomeone whose brains have figuratively been burned out by drugs.
There’s no way we can hire that guy. He’s a total burnout–he can't do the work.
- 5
The shutoff of a rocket motor after exhausting its fuel or having been irreversibly throttled after the application of a planned delta-v.
- 6
The failure of an electrical device, usually through overheating due to the application of excessive power.
- 7
Use of the throttle to spin the wheels of a vehicle being held stationary, causing the spinning tires to produce smoke and burn rubber.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Burnout in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | burn-out, surmenage, syndrome d’épuisement professionnel , burn |
| Portuguese | esgotamento , borrachão |
| Spanish | surmenage, agotamiento , queme, burnout, desgaste, patinazo |
| German | Burn-out |
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 burnout come from?
Deverbal from burn out.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).