bourne
/boɹn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.35 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A stream or brook in which water flows only seasonally; a small stream or brook.
name
A market town and civil parish with a town council in South Kesteven district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF0920).
name
A small river in Dorset, England, which flows into the English Channel at Bournemouth.
name
Either of two rivers in Surrey, England, passing through Chertsey and Addlestone before converging and flowing into the Thames.
Example Sentences
- "[T]he dread of ſomething after death, / The vndiſcouer'd country, from whoſe borne / No trauiler returnes, puzzels the will, […]"
- "[T]hough I did not stop in my advance, yet I went on slowly, like a man who should have passed a bourne unnoticed, and strayed into the country of the dead."
- "For though from out our bourne of Time and Place, The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar."
- "I passed through many beautiful and majestic scenes; but my eyes were fixed and unobserving. I could only think of the bourne of my travels, and the work which was to occupy me whilst they endured."
- "It'd be roughly on par with 2003's Bouchard No. 120 oil spill, in which an estimated 98,000 gallons spilled into Buzzards Bay off the coast of Bourne, Massachusetts."
- "When HBO airs “Behind the Candelabra” on May 26, the world will get to see Matt Damon play Liberace’s drug-addled, surgically enhanced lover – a role about as far from Jason Bourne as it gets."
Etymology
From Middle French borne, from Old French bodne, from Medieval Latin bodina, a word of unknown ultimate origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom, base”), see also Proto-Celtic *bundos.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /boɹn/
- British English: /bɔːn/