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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

born.

Having from birth (or as if from birth) a certain quality or character; innate; inherited.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/bɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/boɹn/General-American[bo̞ɹn]General-American/bɔːɹn/
  1. Having from birth (or as if from birth) a certain quality or character; innate; inherited.

    not-comparable
    In the United States, information describing the operation of nuclear weapons is born secret.
    a born leader
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-der. Proto-Germanic *buranaz Proto-West Germanic *boran Old English boren, ġeboren Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne English born From Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne, from Old English boren, ġeboren, from Proto-West Germanic *boran, *gaboran, from Proto-Germanic *buranaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *beraną (“to bear, carry”), equivalent to bear + -en. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gebooren (“born”), West Frisian berne (“born”), Dutch geboren (“born”), German geboren (“born”), Swedish boren (“born”).

verb/bɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/boɹn/General-American[bo̞ɹn]General-American/bɔːɹn/
  1. past participle of bear; given birth to.

    form-of · participle · past
    Although not born in the country, she qualifies for nationality through her grandparents.
    Born in 1937, I spent my early childhood in Spain.
  2. past participle of bear in other senses.

    form-of · obsolete · participle · past
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-der. Proto-Germanic *buranaz Proto-West Germanic *boran Old English boren, ġeboren Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne English born From Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne, from Old English boren, ġeboren, from Proto-West Germanic *boran, *gaboran, from Proto-Germanic *buranaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *beraną (“to bear, carry”), equivalent to bear + -en. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gebooren (“born”), West Frisian berne (“born”), Dutch geboren (“born”), German geboren (“born”), Swedish boren (“born”).

noun/bɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/boɹn/General-American[bo̞ɹn]General-American/bɔːɹn/
  1. Alternative spelling of burn (a stream)

    Geordie · alt-of · alternative
Where this word comes from

Dialectal variant of burn.

verb/bɔːn/Received-Pronunciation/boɹn/General-American[bo̞ɹn]General-American/bɔːɹn/
  1. Alternative spelling of burn (with fire etc.)

    Geordie · alt-of · alternative
Where this word comes from

Dialectal variant of burn.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.