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borne

French, noun

borne is spelled B-O-R-N-E (5 letters) and appears 6.9 times per million words in written French, the 8,831st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Borne is a French feminine noun meaning “bollard such as those used to restrict automobiles off a pedestrian area” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With an accent, borné is a different word: “narrow”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Pierre, arbre ou autre marque qui sert à séparer un champ d’avec un autre”.

What does borne mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    femininebollard such as those used to restrict automobiles off a pedestrian area

  2. 2

    feminineterritorial boundary marker

  3. 3

    feminineterritorial or geographical border

  4. 4

    femininemilestone such as those alongside a roadway

  5. 5

    feminineslanga kilometre; a click

  6. 6

    femininemark

    dépasser les bornes

  7. 7

    femininelimit of a list or of an interval

    Prenez un nombre entre 0 et 100 (bornes incluses)

  8. 8

    femininemachine

    borne libre service

adjective

as borné
  1. 1

    narrow

  2. 2

    narrow-minded

  3. 3

    bounded

Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How French dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Pierre, arbre ou autre marque qui sert à séparer un champ d’avec un autre. 2. Espèce de colonne qui marquait l’extrémité de la carrière dans les cirques des anciens. 3. Colonne qui marque les distances sur les routes, généralement, en kilomètres. On dit surtout dans ce sens « borne kilométrique ». 4. Kilomètre.

adjective: 1. Qui a des bornes, qui est limité par des obstacles. 2. Qui se tient dans certaines limites. 3. Qui est peu intelligent ; qui est intellectuellement médiocre. 4. Qui admet une borne inférieure et supérieure.

The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.

Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of borne

  • bornes plural
  • bornée feminine
  • bornés masculine plural
  • bornées feminine plural

Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to borne

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is borne in French?

borne appears 6.9 times per million words in written French.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after borne