# burnout

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈbɜː(ɹ)naʊt/ · frequency rank #23,768

## Definitions
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.
3. Someone whose brains have figuratively been burned out by drugs.
4. The shutoff of a rocket motor after exhausting its fuel or having been irreversibly throttled after the application of a planned delta-v.
5. The failure of an electrical device, usually through overheating due to the application of excessive power.
6. Use of the throttle to spin the wheels of a vehicle being held stationary, causing the spinning tires to produce smoke and burn rubber.

## Etymology
Deverbal from burn out.

## Easily confused with
- **burnt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/burnout-vs-burnt)
- **buyout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/burnout-vs-buyout)
- **burnet** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/burnet-vs-burnout)
- **Burnett** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/burnett-vs-burnout)

## Common misspellings (10)
`bburnout`, `brunout`, `bunrout`, `burnnout`, `burnotu`, `burnoutt`, `burnuot`, `buronut`, `burrnout`, `ubrnout`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/burnout