What does "burn" mean?
A physical injury caused by heat, cold, electricity, radiation or caustic chemicals.
Burn
/bɜːn/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A physical injury caused by heat, cold, electricity, radiation or caustic chemicals.
- Grammar: burn is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: combust, abrade, abrasion, adolescent stream.
- Useful contrasts: calm, coking, composting.
- Usage evidence: Fires are less frightening today than they once were, because more and more houses are built of concrete, and concrete houses do not burn as easily as the old wooden ones.
How to use "burn"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "burn" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "burn" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "burn" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "burn" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "burn" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "combust" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "burn", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A physical injury caused by heat, cold, electricity, radiation or caustic chemicals. countable, uncountable
"She had second-degree burns from falling in the bonfire."
- 2 A large stream. Northern-England, Scotland
"This darksome burn, horseback brown, / His rollrock highroad roaring down, / In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam / Flutes and low to the lake falls home."
- 3 damage inflicted by fire wordnet
- 4 A sensation resembling such an injury. countable, uncountable
"chili burn from eating hot peppers"
- 5 a place or area that has been burned (especially on a person's body) wordnet
Show 11 more definitions
- 6 The act of burning something with fire. countable, uncountable
"They’re doing a controlled burn of the fields."
- 7 an injury caused by exposure to heat or chemicals or radiation wordnet
- 8 An intense non-physical sting, as left by shame or an effective insult. countable, slang, uncountable
- 9 pain that feels hot as if it were on fire wordnet
- 10 An effective insult, often in the expression sick burn (excellent or badass insult). countable, slang, uncountable
- 11 Physical sensation in the muscles following strenuous exercise, caused by build-up of lactic acid. countable, uncountable
"One and, two and, keep moving; feel the burn!"
- 12 Tobacco. UK, slang, uncountable
"TOM: I’m serious bruv. Put my burn and lighter and all that in my jeans please and give them here, then press the cell bell."
- 13 The writing of data to a permanent storage medium like a compact disc or a ROM chip. countable, uncountable
"Allow additional burns enables you to create a multisession CD, which can be used again to write more data."
- 14 The operation or result of burning or baking, as in brickmaking. countable, uncountable
"They have a good burn."
- 15 A disease in vegetables; brand. uncountable
- 16 The firing of a spacecraft's rockets in order to change its course. countable, uncountable
"On 4 March 1999, the MCO performed its second course correction manoeuvre with a burn involving its four thrusters […]"
Verb
- 1 To cause to be consumed by fire. transitive
"He burned his manuscript in the fireplace."
- 2 get a sunburn by overexposure to the sun wordnet
- 3 To be consumed by fire, or in flames. intransitive
"He watched the house burn."
- 4 damage by burning with heat, fire, or radiation wordnet
- 5 To overheat so as to make unusable. transitive
"He burned the toast. The blacksmith burned the steel."
Show 37 more definitions
- 6 burn, sear, or freeze (tissue) using a hot iron or electric current or a caustic agent wordnet
- 7 To become overheated to the point of being unusable. intransitive
"The grill was too hot and the steak burned."
- 8 undergo combustion wordnet
- 9 To make or produce by the application of fire or burning heat. transitive
"to burn a hole; to burn letters into a block"
- 10 cause to undergo combustion wordnet
- 11 To injure (a person or animal) with heat or chemicals that produce similar damage. transitive
"She burned the child with an iron, and was jailed for ten years."
- 12 destroy by fire wordnet
- 13 To cauterize. transitive
- 14 use up (energy) wordnet
- 15 To sunburn. ambitransitive
"She forgot to put on sunscreen and burned."
- 16 create by duplicating data wordnet
- 17 To consume, damage, or change the condition of, as if by action of fire or heat; to affect as fire or heat does. transitive
"to burn the mouth with pepper"
- 18 feel strong emotion, especially anger or passion wordnet
- 19 To be hot, e.g. due to embarrassment. intransitive
"The child’s forehead was burning with fever. Her cheeks burned with shame."
- 20 cause a sharp or stinging pain or discomfort wordnet
- 21 To cause to combine with oxygen or other active agent, with evolution of heat; to consume; to oxidize. transitive
"to burn iron in oxygen"
- 22 feel hot or painful wordnet
- 23 To combine energetically, with evolution of heat. dated
"Copper burns in chlorine."
- 24 spend (significant amounts of money) wordnet
- 25 To write data to a permanent storage medium like a compact disc or a ROM chip. transitive
"We’ll burn this program onto an EEPROM one hour before the demo begins."
- 26 execute by tying to a stake and setting alight wordnet
- 27 To render subtitles into a video's content while transcoding it, making the subtitles part of the image (hardsubs). broadly, transitive
"My old DVD player could play DivX files but didn't recognize the subtitle file, so I had to burn them in."
- 28 cause to burn or combust wordnet
- 29 To betray. slang, transitive
"The informant burned him."
- 30 shine intensely, as if with heat wordnet
- 31 To insult or defeat. slang, transitive
"I just burned you again."
- 32 To waste (time); to waste money or other resources. transitive
"We have an hour to burn."
- 33 In certain games, to approach near to a concealed object which is sought.
"You’re cold… warm… hot… you’re burning!"
- 34 To accidentally touch a moving stone. intransitive
- 35 In pontoon, to swap a pair of cards for another pair, or to deal a dead card. transitive
- 36 To make an area of an image darker (when processing photographs in a darkroom, this is accomplished by increasing the exposure of that area to light).
- 37 To be converted to another element in a nuclear fusion reaction, especially in a star. intransitive
- 38 To discard. intransitive, slang
- 39 To shoot someone with a firearm. slang, transitive
- 40 To compromise (an agent's cover story). transitive
"He had already burned his cover with Mrs. Phillips, and it was not a mistake he intended to make again."
- 41 To blackmail. transitive
""How does Leipzig burn him precisely?" Enderby insisted. "What's the pressure? Dirty pix—well, okay. Karla's a puritan, so's Kirov. But I mean, Christ, this isn't the fifties, is it? […]"
- 42 To desire or ache for (something); to focus on attaining (something). US, intransitive, slang
Proper Noun
- 1 A village and civil parish in Selby district, North Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE5928). countable, uncountable
- 2 A river in Dartmoor, Devon, England, a tributary of the River Tavy. countable, uncountable
- 3 A short river in Norfolk, England, which flows into the North Sea. countable, uncountable
- 4 A river in North Yorkshire, England, a tributary of the River Ure. countable, uncountable
- 5 A surname. countable, uncountable
Antonyms
Example
"Fires are less frightening today than they once were, because more and more houses are built of concrete, and concrete houses do not burn as easily as the old wooden ones."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "burn"?
Common synonyms include: combust, abrade, abrasion, adolescent stream, afflict, agonize.
How do you use "burn" in a sentence?
Fires are less frightening today than they once were, because more and more houses are built of concrete, and concrete houses do not burn as easily as the old wooden ones.
How do you pronounce "burn"?
Pronounced /bɜːn/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English bernen (collateral form of brennen), from Old English birnan (“to burn”), metathesis from Proto-West Germanic *brinnan, from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną (“to burn”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw-, present stem from *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of brew. Cognate with Cimbrian prönnan (“to burn”), Dutch barnen, branden (“to burn”), German brinnen (“to burn”), Luxembourgish brennen (“to burn”), Vilamovian brīn (“to burn”), Yiddish ברענען (brenen, “to burn”), Danish brænde (“to burn”), Faroese, Icelandic brenna (“to burn”), Norwegian Bokmål brenne (“to burn”), Norwegian Nynorsk brenna, brenne (“to burn”), Swedish brinna (“to burn”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (brinnan, “to burn”). See also Middle Irish brennim (“drink up”), bruinnim (“bubble up”); also Middle Irish bréo (“flame”), Albanian burth (“Cyclamen hederifolium, mouth burning”), Sanskrit भुरति (bhurati, “moves quickly, twitches, fidgets”). More at brew.
Etymology 2
From Northern Middle English burn, from Old English burne, burna (“spring, fountain”), Proto-West Germanic *brunnō, from Proto-Germanic *brunnô, *brunō. Cognate with Scots burn (“stream”), Cimbrian, Mòcheno prunn (“well, spring”), Dutch bron (“well”), German Bronnen, Brun, Brunnen (“well”), Luxembourgish Buer, Bur (“well”), Yiddish ברונעם (brunem, “well”), Danish brønd (“well”), Faroese brunnur, bruður (“well”), Icelandic brunnur (“well”), Norwegian Bokmål, Scanian brønn (“well”), Norwegian Nynorsk brunn, brønn (“well”), Swedish brunn (“well”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌿𐌽𐌽𐌰 (brunna, “source, wellspring”), Crimean Gothic brunna (“spring, fountain, source”). Also Albanian burim (“spring, fountain”), Ancient Greek φρέαρ (phréar, “well, reservoir”), Old Armenian աղբիւր (ałbiwr, “fount”). Doublet of bourn. More at brew.
Etymology 3
* The surname is of English origin, variant of Bourne. * The placename in Yorkshire is likely related to the suffix -burn, found in placenames such as Woodburn, Glusburn, etc., from burn (“stream”).