Word.ws English Dictionary

burden

UK/ˈbɜːdn̩//ˈbɝdn̩/

burden noun: a heavy load.

Noun (1)

burden (plural burdens)

  1. A heavy load.
    • I know that this was Life,—the track
      ⁠Whereon with equal feet we fared;
      ⁠And then, as now, the day prepared
      The daily burden for the back.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 42
    • There were four or five men in the vault already, and I could hear more coming down the passage, and guessed from their heavy footsteps that they were carrying burdens.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC
  2. A responsibility, onus.
  3. A cause of worry; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive.
    • Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, / To all my friends a burden grown.c. 1710-1730, Jonathan Swift, The Dean's Complaint Translated and Answered
  4. The capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry.
    • a ship of a hundred tons burden
    • "[…] The quay is upwards of 1,000 feet in length, and capable of accommodating more than 100 sail of traders; and there are generally a considerable number of vessels of from 40 to 300 tons burden, from various parts of the world, waiting to receive their cargoes."1945 May and June, Charles E. Lee, “The Penrhyn Railway and its Locomotives—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 142, text published 1848
  5. The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.
  6. The proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace.
  7. A fixed quantity of certain commodities.
    • A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.
  8. (obsolete, rare) A birth.
    • … that bore thee at a burden two fair sons.
  9. The total amount of toxins, parasites, cancer cells, plaque or similar present in an organism.
  10. (blasting) The distance between rows of blastholes parallel to the major free face (i.e. face of the excavation)

Verb

burden (third-person singular simple present burdens, present participle burdening, simple past and past participle burdened)

  1. (figuratively, literally, transitive) To encumber with a burden.
    • to burden a nation with taxes
    • My burdened heart would break.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. (transitive) To impose, as a load or burden; to lay or place as a burden (something heavy or objectionable).
    • He was beginning to forget his burdening, despairing mood of a short while ago.1964, Philip K. Dick, “FOUR”, in Clans of the Alphane Moon, United States: Ace Books, →OCLC; republished London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996, →ISBN, page 39

Noun (2)

burden (plural burdens)

  1. A phrase or theme that recurs at the end of each verse in a folk song or ballad.
    • Foot it featly here and there; / And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
    • As commonly used, the refrain, or burden, not only is limited to lyric verse, but depends for its impression upon the force of monotone - both in sound and thought.1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Composition
  2. The drone of a bagpipe.
    • BURDEN in some musical instruments, the Drone or Bass, and the pipe or string that plays it1740, Sébastien de Brossard, James Grassineau, A Musical Dictionary
  3. A theme, a core idea.
    • the burden of the argument

Proper noun capitalized: Burden

Burden (countable and uncountable, plural Burdens)

  1. A surname.
  2. A minor city in Cowley County, Kansas, United States.
  3. A village in Erpeldange commune, Luxembourg (French spelling).

burden meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

burden in Hindi

burden, load, weight
भार bhār
burden, load
बोझ bojh
burden, punishment
ख़मियाज़ा xamiyāzā
burden, strain, hardship
तकलीफ़ taklīf

burden in Tamil

burden, weight
பாரம் pāram, நுகம் nukam
burden, care, responsibility
நிர்வாகம் nirvākam
burden, load
பரி pari

burden in Marathi

heavy load
ओझे ojhe

burden in Urdu

burden, load
بوجھ bojh
More languagesFewer languages
burden in Malayalam
ഭാരം bhāraṁ, ക്ലേശം klēśaṁ, ബാധ്യത bādhyata, ചുമതല cumatala
burden in Kannada
ವಜ್ಜೆ vajje, ಭಾರ bhāra
burden in Gujarati
બોજ
burden in Odia
ଭାର bhāra
burden in Sanskrit
भार bhāra
burden in Assamese
বোজা büza
burden in Nepali
बोझ, बोझमा
burden in Tagalog
dinadalang mabigat, pasanin
burden in Arabic
حِمْل ḥiml, عِبْء ʕibʔ
burden in Malay
beban
burden in Indonesian
membebani
burden in Persian
بار bâr
burden in Thai
ความรับผิดชอบ kwaam-ráp-pìt-chɔ̂ɔp, ภาระ paa-rá, ถ่วง tùuang
burden in Vietnamese
gánh nặng

Examples of burden in a sentence

  • Finally she was relieved of the burden of caring for her sick husband.
  • You have to break an elephant before you can use it as an animal of burden.
  • His status as a protégé of the great artist had many benefits, but was ultimately a burden.

All 40 example sentences with burden

Forms of burden

Noun
pluralburdens
alternative form (archaic)burthen
Verb
third-person singular presentburdens
present participleburdening
past participleburdened
pastburdened
Proper noun
pluralBurdens

Past tense of burden: burdened

Plural of burden: burdens

Origin of burden

Inherited from Middle English birthene, birthen, birden, from Old English byrden, byrþen, from Proto-West Germanic *burþini, from *burþī, from Proto-Germanic *burþį̄, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”).

Inherited from Middle English burdoun (“accompaniment”), from Old French bordon (“drone”), from Medieval Latin burdō. Doublet of bourdon.

Words formed from burden

Phrases with burden

Words that rhyme with burden

Questions about burden

What does burden mean?
Burden means a heavy load.
What is burden in Hindi?
Burden in Hindi is भार (bhār), बोझ (bojh), ख़मियाज़ा (xamiyāzā). See Burden meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is burden?
Burden can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce burden?
Burden is pronounced /ˈbɜːdn̩/ (UK).
What is the plural of burden?
The plural of burden is burdens.

Words near burden in the dictionary

  1. Burdekin duck
  2. Burdekin ducks
  3. Burdekin plum
  4. Burdekin plums
  5. Burdell
  6. burden
  7. burden basket
  8. burden baskets
  9. burden of persuasion
  10. burden of production
  11. burden of proof

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burden (page history and authors); Burden (page history and authors); ख़मियाज़ा (Hindi) (page history and authors); நிர்வாகம் (Tamil) (page history and authors); بوجھ (Urdu) (page history and authors); ക്ലേശം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಭಾರ (Kannada) (page history and authors); burden (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଭାର (Odia) (page history and authors); burden (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-burden.ogg.

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