burst
/bɝst/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.15 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "I blew the balloon up too much, and it burst."
- "I burst the balloon when I blew it up too much."
- "You will not pay for the glasses you have burst?"
- "He burst his lance against the sand below."
- "I printed the report on form-feed paper, then burst the sheets."
- "1913, Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs, translated by E. MunguÍa, Jr. Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, trampling down the women who sought to bar the entrance with their bodies."
Etymology
From Middle English bresten, bersten, from Old English berstan, from Proto-West Germanic *brestan, from Proto-Germanic *brestaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰres- (“to burst, break, crack, split, separate”), enlargement of *bʰreHi- (“to snip, split”). See also West Frisian boarste, Dutch barsten, Danish briste, Swedish brista; also Irish bris (“to break”)). More at brine. Also cognate to debris.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: bresten, berstan, *brestan, *brestaną, *bʰres-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /bɝst/
- British English: /bɜːst/