Word.ws English Dictionary

bourdon

UK/ˈbʊədən/US/ˈbʊɹdən/

bourdon noun: the burden or bass of a melody.

Noun (1)

bourdon (plural bourdons)

  1. (archaic) The burden or bass of a melody.
    • The earth tremors resumed and made a bourdon to the loud psalms that they sang, interspersed with the odd ode of Horace recited by Silas.1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked
  2. The drone pipe of a bagpipe.
  3. The lowest-pitched stop of an organ.
    • The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant organ.1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vintage, published 2007, page 5
  4. The lowest-pitched bell of a carillon.
  5. A large, low-pitched bell not part of a diatonically tuned ring of bells.
  6. A bumblebee, genus Bombus.

Noun (2)

bourdon (plural bourdons)

  1. (historical) a pilgrim's staff.
    • The left hand was gone, this held the bourdon or pilgrim's staff, a small portion only of which appeared over the scrip.1883 October, M.H. Bloxam, “On The Sepulchral Effigy of a Pilgrim in St. Mary's Church, Haverfordwest, South Wales”, in Archaeologia Cambrensis, volume 14, number 56, page 258
    • The pilgrim's return was denoted by a bunch of palm, which was tied round the head of the bourdon, the leaves being, of course, ghe guerdon of his enterprise, giving the name of Palmer to the tribe.1897 May, W. Connor Sydney, “Out With the Old Pilgrims”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, page 489

Noun (3) capitalized: Bourdon

Bourdon

  1. A flute stop on an organ of 8', 16' or 32', generally characterized by a low, dark tone.

Proper noun capitalized: Bourdon

Bourdon (plural Bourdons)

  1. A surname from French.

Examples of bourdon in a sentence

  • Both in Wright's text and in Lydgate's version the hutch from which Grace Dieu gets the scrip and bourdon is said to contain 'many a fair jewel.'1904, James Blanton Wharey, A Study of the Sources of Bunyan's Allegories, page 29:
  • A thin wand is frequently bound against the pilgrim's bourdon in fifteenth century pictures.1926, James Charles Wall, Pilgrimage, page 27:

Forms of bourdon

Noun
pluralbourdons
alternative formbordon
alternative formburdon
Proper noun
pluralBourdons

Origin of bourdon

Inherited from Middle English burdoun (“accompaniment”), from Old French bordon, from Medieval Latin burdō, burdōnem (“drone”), probably from Frankish *buʀdō (“grub, beetle, cricket, bumblebee”), related to Old English budda (“beetle”), Saterland Frisian Budde (“worm or grub used as fishbait”), Icelandic budda (“purse”). The modern pronunciation and form (for *burdon) is influenced by modern French bourdon.

Inherited from Middle English burdoun (“pilgrim's staff”), from Old French bordon, from Medieval Latin burdō, burdōnem (“pilgrim's staff”). The modern pronunciation and form is also influenced by modern French bourdon.

Questions about bourdon

What does bourdon mean?
Bourdon means the burden or bass of a melody.
How do you use bourdon in a sentence?
Both in Wright's text and in Lydgate's version the hutch from which Grace Dieu gets the scrip and bourdon is said to contain 'many a fair jewel.'
What part of speech is bourdon?
Bourdon can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bourdon?
Bourdon is pronounced /ˈbʊədən/ (UK).
What is the plural of bourdon?
The plural of bourdon is bourdons.

Words near bourdon in the dictionary

  1. Bourdieu
  2. Bourdieuan
  3. Bourdieusian
  4. Bourdin
  5. bourding
  6. bourdon
  7. bourdonnée
  8. bourdons
  9. bourds
  10. bourek
  11. bourekas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bourdon (page history and authors); Bourdon (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.

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Cite this entry: “bourdon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bourdon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.