Word.ws English Dictionary

bruin

/ˈbɹuːɪn/

bruin noun: a folk name for a bear, especially the brown bear, Ursus arctos.

Noun

bruin (plural bruins)

  1. A folk name for a bear, especially the brown bear, Ursus arctos.
    • The mother sought the one gone / astray, for the lost she longs: / she ran great swamps as a wolf / trod the wilds as a bruin / waters as an otter roamed […].1989, Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, section XVII

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Bruin

Bruin

  1. (literary) A bear character in fairy stories, etc., especially when anthropomorphised.
    • When he had driven some distance he met a pedlar. "Where is the sheriff off to, to-day?" said the pedlar; "he must have a long way and little time, since he is driving so fast." But Bruin did not say a word, for he had more than enough to do to hold on.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 112

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Bruin

Bruin (countable and uncountable, plural Bruins)

  1. A surname from Dutch.
  2. An unincorporated community in Elliott County, Kentucky, United States.
  3. A borough of Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States.

bruin meaning in Urdu

bruin in Urdu

بھورا ریچھ

Forms of bruin

Noun
pluralbruins
Proper noun
pluralBruins

Plural of bruin: bruins

Origin of bruin

From Middle Dutch bruun (“brown”) via William Caxton's 1485 translation of a Dutch version of the legend of Reynard the Fox. Bruin is the bear, named for his brown color. Doublet of brown.

From Dutch bruin (“brown”), used as a name for the bear in Reynard the Fox.

* As a Dutch surname, borrowed from Dutch Bruin, from the adjective bruin (“brown”). Compare Braun. * As an English surname, possibly a pronunciation of the French surname Brun, from the adjective brun (“brown”), related to above. * As an Alemannic German surname, variant of Bruhin.

Words that rhyme with bruin

Questions about bruin

What does bruin mean?
Bruin means a folk name for a bear, especially the brown bear, Ursus arctos.
What is bruin in Urdu?
Bruin in Urdu is بھورا ریچھ. See Bruin meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is bruin?
Bruin can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bruin?
Bruin is pronounced /ˈbɹuːɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of bruin?
The plural of bruin is bruins.

Words near bruin in the dictionary

  1. bruhs
  2. Bruie Plains
  3. Bruijn's brushturkey
  4. bruilzie
  5. bruilzies
  6. bruin
  7. Bruinbun
  8. bruins
  9. Bruinsma
  10. Bruinsmas
  11. bruisability

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bruin (page history and authors); Bruin (page history and authors); bruin (Urdu Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bruin.wav.

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