burden

B1 Topic:General Vocabulary

Also spelled burthen

US /ˈbɝdn̩/ UK /ˈbɜːdn̩/ See IPA manual

Freq #3986

Meanings

1

noun
A heavy duty, worry, or responsibility that is hard to bear.

Caring for her elderly parents became a heavy burden.
2

noun
A heavy load that is carried.

The donkey struggled under the burden on its back.
3

verb
To give someone a difficult task or responsibility.

I don't want to burden you with my problems.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a heavy duty, worry, or... load

3 verb · to give someone a difficult... charge

Word family

Forms burdenedburdeningburdens

Derived forms after-burdenafterburdenbioburdenburdenerburdenlessburdenous burdensome disburdenemburdenenburdenenburdenmentoverburden

Etymology

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

*bʰer- Proto-Indo-European burden Middle English byrden Old English *burþini Proto-West Germanic *burþį̄ Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# burden

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈbɝdn̩/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈbɜːdn̩/
**Frequency rank:** 3986

## Meanings
1. A heavy duty, worry, or responsibility that is hard to bear.
2. A heavy load that is carried.
3. To give someone a difficult task or responsibility.

## Examples
- Caring for her elderly parents became a heavy burden.
- The donkey struggled under the burden on its back.
- I don't want to burden you with my problems.

## Derived Forms
- after-burden
- afterburden
- bioburden
- burdener
- burdenless
- burdenous
- burdensome
- disburden
- emburden
- enburden
- enburdenment
- overburden

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *bʰer-
- Root: burden
- Root: byrden
- Root: *burþini
- Root: *burþį̄

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

## AI Etymology
Burden is inherited from Middle English burden, birden, burthen, birthen, byrthen, from Old English byrden, byrþen, from Proto-West Germanic *burþini, from *burþī, from Proto-Germanic *burþį̄, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”).

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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