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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sunburn.

A burn on the skin caused by excess exposure to the sun's rays.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsʌnˌbɜːn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsʌnˌbɝn/General-American

  1. A burn on the skin caused by excess exposure to the sun's rays.

    countable · uncountable

  2. A burn on the tissue of crop plants or their fruits (especially if they are rich in water like tomatoes, grapes, apples, gooseberries) caused by excess exposure to the sun's rays.

    countable · uncountable

  3. Suntan.

    countable · rare · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English *sunne burnen, *sonne brennen, *sunne brennen (suggested by derivatives sonne brennynge, sunne brennynge (“sunburn”, literally “sun-burning”) and sunne brente (“sunburnt”), equivalent to sun + burn. Compare West Frisian sinnebrân (“sunburn”), Dutch zonnebrand (“sunburn”), German Sonnenbrand (“sunburn”), Swedish solbränna (“sunburn”), and Icelandic sólbruni (“sunburn”), as well as Old English sunbryne (“sunburn”).

verb/ˈsʌnˌbɜːn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsʌnˌbɝn/General-American

  1. To receive a sunburn.

    intransitive

  2. To burn or tan (someone's skin) by the sun; to allow (a part of one's body) to become sunburnt.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English *sunne burnen, *sonne brennen, *sunne brennen (suggested by derivatives sonne brennynge, sunne brennynge (“sunburn”, literally “sun-burning”) and sunne brente (“sunburnt”), equivalent to sun + burn. Compare West Frisian sinnebrân (“sunburn”), Dutch zonnebrand (“sunburn”), German Sonnenbrand (“sunburn”), Swedish solbränna (“sunburn”), and Icelandic sólbruni (“sunburn”), as well as Old English sunbryne (“sunburn”).

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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.