Bern
/bɜː(ɹ)n/US/bɝn/
Bern proper noun: a federal city of Switzerland; the capital city of Bern canton.
Proper noun (1)
Bern (countable and uncountable, plural Berns)
- A federal city of Switzerland; the capital city of Bern canton.
- Although the researchers found that, on average, narcissism gradually declined as people aged, “the results show that this decline is not as large as one might hope,” said Ulrich Orth, the lead author of the paper and a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Bern in Switzerland.2024 July 11, Christina Caron, “Narcissism Is a Trait That’s Hard to Shake, Study Says”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 13 Jul 2024
- A canton of Switzerland.
- A surname
Proper noun (2)
Bern (plural Berns)
- A diminutive of the male given name Bernard, variant of Bernie.
- A diminutive of the female given names Bernadette and Bernice, variant of Bernie.
Bern meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
Bern in Hindi
- city
- बर्न barn
Bern in Tamil
- city
- பேர்ன் pērṉ
Bern in Urdu
- city
- برن barn
Bern in Bengali
- city
- বের্ন berno
More languagesFewer languages
- Bern in Pashto
- برن bern
- Bern in Tagalog
- Berna, Bern
- Bern in Arabic
- بِرْن bern, بِيرْن bern
- Bern in Malay
- Bern
- Bern in Indonesian
- Bern
- Bern in Persian
- برن bern
- Bern in Thai
- แบร์น bɛɛn
- Bern in Vietnamese
- Bơn, Béc-nơ
- Bern in Myanmar
- ဘန်းမြို့ bhan:mrui.
Forms of Bern
| plural | Berns |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Berne |
Origin of Bern
From Alemannic German Bärn, of uncertain further origin. A popular folk etymology says it was named by its founder, Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen, after the first animal he saw in the area, a Bär(in) (“bear”) (compare Berlin, subject to a similar folk etymology). The name is now thought to be connected to a Celtic word, Proto-Celtic *berna (“cleft”) (from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to carve out, cut”)) and *branos (“raven”) (compare the name ΒΡΕΝΟΔΩΡ (BRENODŌR), on the Bern zinc tablet, which has also been connected with the Gaulish name Brennus). More at Bern.
Abbreviations * Clipping of Bernard. * Clipping of Bernadette. * Clipping of Bernice.
Words formed from Bern
Phrases with Bern
Words that rhyme with Bern
Questions about Bern
- What does Bern mean?
- Bern means a federal city of Switzerland; the capital city of Bern canton.
- What is Bern in Hindi?
- Bern in Hindi is बर्न (barn). See Bern meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is Bern?
- Bern is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce Bern?
- Bern is pronounced /bɜː(ɹ)n/ (UK).
Words near Bern in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Bern (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Bern.wav.
Cite this entry: “Bern.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.