sunburned

/ˈsʌn.bɝnd/

//ˈsʌn.bɝnd// adj

"sunburned" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“sunburned” is uncommon English (frequency #57,746 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#57,746
frequency rank, English
54,294
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Alternative form of sunburnt.

Key facts for sunburned
PropertyValue
Headwordsunburned
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
IPA/ˈsʌn.bɝnd/
Letters9
Frequency rank#57,746
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “sunburned” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). sunburned lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sunburned is uncommon English at frequency #57,746 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈsʌn.bɝnd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Alternative form of sunburnt.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for sunburned, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is sunburned, spelled S-U-N-B-U-R-N-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Alternative form of sunburnt.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sunburned"?
"sunburned" is spelled S-U-N-B-U-R-N-E-D. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈsʌn.bɝnd/.
What does "sunburned" mean?
As an adjective, "sunburned" means: Alternative form of sunburnt.
How do you pronounce "sunburned"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sunburned" is /ˈsʌn.bɝnd/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sunburned" come from?
"sunburned" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “sunburned”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-U-N-B-U-R-N-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as /ˈsʌn.bɝnd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list