Bourse

//bʊəs// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A stock exchange.
  2. 2
    A stock exchange.; Any place, real or imagined, where the value of a thing is settled. figuratively

    "For quotations using this term, see Citations:bourse."

  3. 3
    A meeting of stamp collectors and/or dealers, where stamps and covers are sold or exchanged.
  4. 4
    The swollen basal part of an inflorescence axis at the onset of fruit development; it bears leaves whose axillary buds differentiate and may grow out as shoots.

Example

More examples

"He modeled caryatids for the Palais de la Bourse at Brussels; for the Palais des Académies he made a frieze representing children and the attributes of the arts and sciences; he was charged also with the execution of decorative pieces for different municipal buildings of the city of Antwerp."

Etymology

Borrowed from French bourse, from Old French borse, from Latin bursa, from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa). Doublet of purse, compare Danish børs, Swedish börs, German Börse. See also bursar.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.