burnt
/bɝnt/adjective, noun, verb
burnt is spelled B-U-R-N-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, burnt means “Damaged or injured by fire or heat” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in burnt?
| Letters | 5: B-U-R-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,784th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is burnt?
Burnt appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th 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 burnt?
- UK /bɜːnt/
- US /bɝnt/
- /bɔːnt/
Burnt has one syllable (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-us-burnt.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with burnt
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: brent.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with burnt?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as burnt from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹnt/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: brunt.
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 burnt
- more burnt comparative
- most burnt superlative
- burned
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does burnt mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Damaged or injured by fire or heat.
- 2
Carbonised.
The toast was too burnt to eat.
- 3
Having a sunburn.
- 4
Being darker than standard, especially browner.
noun
- 1
informalChar.
verb
- 1
CommonwealthUKsimple past and past participle of burn
I burnt the toast.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Burnt in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 burnt come from?
Inherited from Middle English brent, brynt; by surface analysis, burn + t.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).