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PlainSpell

hamburger

ham·burger/ˈhæmˌbɜɹ.ɡɚ/noun, verb

hamburger is spelled H-A-M-B-U-R-G-E-R, 2 syllables: ham·burger. The wrong spelling people search most is hamberder: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 667 of all searches for the word. Hamburger is a noun meaning “A hot sandwich consisting of a patty of cooked ground beef or a meat substitute, in a sliced bun, usually…”. The plural of hamburger is hamburgers.

How many letters and syllables are in hamburger?

Letters9: H-A-M-B-U-R-G-E-R
Syllables2: ham·burger
In writing2.8 times per million words; the 16,005th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, hamberder, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them)

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); 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 do you spell hamburger?

Hamburger is spelled H-A-M-B-U-R-G-E-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 671 of the searches for hamburger in either form.

hamburgerthe right spelling20,110 searches a month
hamberdere in place of u, d in place of g30 searches a month

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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is hamburger?

Hamburger appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,005th 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 hamburger?

  • UK /ˈhæmˌbɜː.ɡə/
  • UK /ˈhæm.bə.ɡə/
  • US /ˈhæmˌbɜɹ.ɡɚ/

Hamburger has 2 syllables, split ham·burger in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-hamburger.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Paul2520-Hamburger.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of hamburger

  • hamburgers plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hamburgering participle, present
  • hamburgered participle, past

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

What does hamburger mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A hot sandwich consisting of a patty of cooked ground beef or a meat substitute, in a sliced bun, usually also containing salad vegetables, condiments, or both.

  2. 2

    The patty used in such a sandwich.

  3. 3

    Ground beef, especially that intended to be made into hamburgers.

  4. 4

    UScolloquialAn animal or human, or the flesh thereof, that has been badly injured as a result of an accident or conflict.

    The truck hit the deer and turned it into hamburger.

  5. 5

    Ellipsis of hamburger button.

  6. 6

    USinformalDescribing the shape of a rectangular piece of paper folded in half so that it forms a short rectangle.

verb

  1. 1

    informalTo badly injure or damage (a fleshy part of the body).

noun

as Hamburger
  1. 1

    A person from Hamburg.

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

Hamburger in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchhamburger, hambourgeois (sandwich), Hambourgeois, Hambourgeoise (A person from Hamburg)
GermanHamburger (sandwich), Hamburgerin (A person from Hamburg)
Portuguesehamburger, hambúrguer, sandes de hambúrguer (sandwich), hamburguês, hamburguesa (A person from Hamburg)
Spanishhamburguesa (sandwich), hamburgués (A person from Hamburg), whopper (patty)

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 hamburger come from?

Shortening of Hamburger sandwich, Hamburger steak, etc., the first element borrowed from German Hamburger (“native of Hamburg”), equivalent to Hamburg + -er.

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

What to look up after hamburger