Word.ws English Dictionary

winterbourne

Syllables: win·ter·bourne/ˈwɪntəbɔːn/US/ˈwɪntɚˌboɹn/

winterbourne noun: a stream that only flows in winter or after wet weather, particularly in an area rich in limestone.

Noun

winterbourne (plural winterbournes)

  1. (UK) A stream that only flows in winter or after wet weather, particularly in an area rich in limestone.
    • [F]rom the graveyard itself burst up one of those noble springs known as winter-bournes in the chalk ranges, which, awakened in autumn from the abysses to which it had shrunk during the summer's drought, was hurrying down upon its six months' course, a broad sheet of oily silver, over a temporary...1848, [Charles Kingsley], “The Philosophy of Fox-hunting”, in Yeast: A Problem. […], London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1851, →OCLC, pages 14–15
    • The stream is a winterbourne - it flows only in winter or other periods of high rainfall and is usually dry in summer.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 334, about Rockbourne

Proper noun capitalized: Winterbourne

Winterbourne

  1. A small village and civil parish in West Berkshire district, Berkshire (OS grid ref SU4572).
  2. A large village and civil parish in South Gloucestershire district, Gloucestershire, England (OS grid ref ST6580).
  3. A hamlet in Boughton under Blean parish, Swale district, Kent (OS grid ref TR0657).
  4. A civil parish north-east of Salisbury, Wiltshire.
  5. A community in Woolwich township, Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
  6. A surname from Old English.

Forms of winterbourne

pluralwinterbournes

Origin of winterbourne

From winter + bourne (“seasonal brook or stream”), partly also from the placenames Winterborne, Winterbourne, which are derived from Old English winterburna (“stream that is full in winter”), from winter (from Proto-Germanic *wintruz, further etymology uncertain) + burna (“stream”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”)). The Old English word appears to have survived only in placenames.

From Old English Winterburna < winter + burna (“stream”), 'the stream that flows in winter'.

Questions about winterbourne

What does winterbourne mean?
Winterbourne means a stream that only flows in winter or after wet weather, particularly in an area rich in limestone.
What part of speech is winterbourne?
Winterbourne can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce winterbourne?
Winterbourne is pronounced /ˈwɪntəbɔːn/ (UK).
What is the plural of winterbourne?
The plural of winterbourne is winterbournes.

Words near winterbourne in the dictionary

  1. Winterbottom
  2. Winterbottom's sign
  3. Winterbottoms
  4. winterbound
  5. Winterbourn
  6. winterbourne
  7. winterbournes
  8. Winterbourns
  9. Winterburn
  10. wintercreeper
  11. wintercreepers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: winterbourne (page history and authors); Winterbourne (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-winterbourne.wav.

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