bury
/ˈbɛɹi/verb, noun
bury is spelled B-U-R-Y: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 7.8 times per million words in written English, the 8,417th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, bury means “To kill or murder” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in bury?
| Letters | 4: B-U-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 7.8 times per million words; the 8,417th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| 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 bury?
Bury appears 7.8 times per million words in written English, the 8,417th 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 bury?
- US /ˈbɛɹi/
- Australia /ˈbeɹi/
- Australia [ˈbeɹiː] ~ [ˈbe̞ɹiː]
Bury 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-us-bury.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl--bury.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl--bury2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with bury
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: beary, berry (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with bury?
9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bury from its last stressed vowel (/ɛɹi/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ruby.
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 bury
- buries present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- burying participle, present
- buried participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bury mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
slangTo kill or murder.
- 2
To outlive.
Grandpa’s still in excellent health. He’ll bury us all!
- 3
To place in the ground.
bury a bone; bury the embers
- 4
To hide or conceal as if by covering with earth or another substance.
She buried her face in the pillow, and I buried mine in my hands.
- 5
To render imperceptible by other, more prominent stimuli; to drown out.
vocals buried in the mix
- 6
To overwhelm.
They buried us in paperwork.
- 7
To suppress and hide away in one's mind.
secrets kept buried
- 8
To put an end to; to abandon.
They buried their argument and shook hands.
noun
- 1
A borough; a manor
- 2
obsoleteA burrow.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bury in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | enterrer, ensevelir |
| German | beerdigen, begraben , vergraben, eingraben |
| Portuguese | enterrar, sepultar, inumar , soterrar |
| Spanish | enterrar, dar sepultura, sepultar |
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 bury come from?
Middle English birien, berien, from Old English byrġan, from Proto-West Germanic *burgijan, from Proto-Germanic *burgijaną (“to keep safe”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰergʰ- (“to defend, protect”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).