Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use burden in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Burden means a heavy load. Example: “A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.”

Examples of burden by meaning

nounThe capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry.

  • a ship of a hundred tons burden

nounA fixed quantity of certain commodities.

  • A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.

verbTo encumber with a burden.

  • to burden a nation with taxes

verbTo 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...

nounA theme, a core idea.

  • the burden of the argument

More sentences with burden

  • Finally she was relieved of the burden of caring for her sick husband.From the entry of
  • You have to break an elephant before you can use it as an animal of burden.From the entry break
  • His status as a protégé of the great artist had many benefits, but was ultimately a burden.From the entry protégé
  • Progressive taxes attempt to reduce the tax burden of people with a lower ability to pay.From the entry ability to pay
  • The old man was bent double under his heavy burden.From the entry double
  • Get it yourself. I'm not your beast of burden.From the entry beast of burden
  • His bodily deficiencies were a heavy burden to him.From the entry bodily
  • If a judicial authorization is facially valid, the party challenging it will have the burden of proving that it was invalid.From the entry facially
  • During the previous administration, crushing environmental regulatory burdens caused the average cost of vehicles to soar.2026 June 29, Donald J. Trump, “Lowering the Cost of Living by Promoting the Freedom to Fix”, in The White House, archived from the…. From the entry crushing
  • No amount of finagling can get this law to pass the "undue burden" test.2021, Josh Blackman, Noah Feldman Indulges in Brett Kavanaugh Fan Fiction on Dobbs, in: reason.com, 2021-08-23. From the entry finagling
  • Step 1 is to acknowledge the burden that doomscrolling creates for our health, Dr.2020 July 15, Brian X. Chen, “You’re Doomscrolling Again. Here’s How to Snap Out of It.”, in New York Times. From the entry doomscrolling
  • The burden of judgment imposed by the politics of respectability can easily colonize black minds.2017, Christopher J. Lebron, The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea, →ISBN. From the entry colonize
  • For years I had been carrying the burden of molluscophobia, an extreme fear of snails.2017, Maria Hocking, “Finding Self Love”, in Strip Naked and Re-Dress with Happiness: How to Survive and Thrive Through Personal…. From the entry molluscophobia
  • The truth was, her conscience was squeejawed with the burden of Jerry Graeme.2009, Kennedy Foster, All Roads Lead Me Back to You. From the entry squeejawed
  • Casey reworked the rule-oriented Roe opinion into a standardlike undue burden test.2008, Daniel A. Farber, Suzanna Sherry, Judgment Calls: Principle and Politics in Constitutional Law. From the entry standardlike
  • This burden of responsibility is behind motorists' frustrations with the "heck-care" attitude of reckless jaywalkers.2008 March 2, “Motorists' burden"”, in The Straits Times. From the entry heck-care
  • Unfat people tend to blame us for our burden—even though it's our burden, not theirs.2006, Michael S. Berman, Laurence Shames, Living Large: A Big Man's Ideas on Weight, Success, and Acceptance. From the entry unfat
  • Now, women shouldered the entire burden of pounding, storing, and cooking acorns.2004, Brian M. Fagan, Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants (Rowman Altamira; →ISBN, 9780759103740), page…. From the entry balanephagous
  • The raggle-taggle host of freedmen dwarfed her own, but they were more burden than benefit.2000 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Daenerys [Targaryen]”, in A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3), London…. From the entry raggle-taggle
  • The burden of proof lies on the one who makes the positive claim.2000 January 11, Graham Wanless, “defintion of atheism?”, in alt.atheism (Usenet). From the entry elfist
  • Progressivism; these were both a blessing and a burden in Russell's life.1993, Russell Wilcox Ramsey, Russell Archibald Ramsey, On Law and Country. From the entry Edwardianism
  • The arms controllers who "descoped" the Patriot bear a heavy burden.1991 March 26, “Lethal Control of Arms”, in Washington Times. From the entry descope
  • Curco is a Chileanism, meaning literally to be bent over with an irritating burden.1991, Cynthia G. Brown, Human rights and the "politics of agreements": Chile during President Aylwin's first year, Human Rights Watch…. From the entry Chileanism
  • Adoption of such a tax reform would only increase the long run excess burden unneededly.1988, Finances Publiques, volume 43, H.J. Paris, page 179. From the entry unneededly
  • In Nandy's Chharpoka, for instance, the protagonist felt a fatiguesome burden of the continued drudgery of life.1985, Biplab Chakraborti, Pessimism and Contemporary Bengali Literature, page 72. From the entry fatiguesome
  • Then there are those times we can almost visualize humongously heavy burdens on people’s shoulders.1981, Lee Sparks, editor, The Youth Group How-to Book: 66 Practical Projects and Programs to Help You Build a Better Youth Group…. From the entry humongously
  • Charles is not so bad, but Charlie is a terrible burden to bear.1979 Charles Kuralt, Dateline America, Harcourt Brace Jovanocich, page 184. From the entry charlie
  • For wheelchair-users there are separate pockets fitted to the chair arm which take the burden off clothes.1962 March 23, James N. Miller, “Design Easy-to-Fit Garb for Disabled”, in Asbury Park Evening Press, eighty-third year, number 70, Asbury…. From the entry wheelchair-user
  • According to Table V, Michigan's local government debt burden is below the average for the country.1960, Alfred L. Edwards, A Study of Local Government Debt in Michigan (Technical study), →LCCN, →OCLC, page 9. From the entry debt burden
  • Even the dogs worked then, pulling small burdens on travois of sticks.1950, Dorothy M. Johnson, A Man Called Horse; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 174. From the entry travois
  • Plaintiff has the burden of presenting a case which fairly preponders over the defendant's case.1949, Supreme Court, page 370. From the entry preponder
  • The scuppers could not carry off the burden of water on the schooner’s deck.1912, Jack London, A Sun of the Son, Chapter Eight, IV. From the entry avalanche
  • And now, finally, the contraceptive burden would fall on me.2026 May 11, Tim Burrows, “My first thought after having a vasectomy: why aren’t more British men having them?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry coil
  • Price changes associated with discounts grew at a much lower average rate than regular prices, helping to mitigate the inflation burden.2024, Alberto Cavallo, Oleksiy Kryvtsov, “Price discounts and cheapflation during the post-pandemic inflation surge”, in Journal of…. From the entry cheapflation
  • The station will be adjacent to Millwall Football Club's ground and would help ease the burden of match-day crowds.2020 May 20, Paul Bigland, “East London Line's renaissance”, in Rail, page 48. From the entry match day

Meaning of burden

  1. noun A heavy load.
  2. noun A responsibility, onus.
  3. noun A cause of worry; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive.

Full definition of burden

Questions about burden in a sentence

How do you use burden in a sentence?
Burden is used as a noun and verb. For example: “A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.”
What is a short sentence with burden?
“the burden of the argument”
What does burden mean?
Burden means a heavy load.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burden (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use burden in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/burden. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.