Burthen
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Archaic form of burden. alt-of, archaic
"Nor less, I trust, To them I may have owed another gift, Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood, In which the burthen of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, Is lightened:"
- 2 a variant of ‘burden’ wordnet
- 3 Archaic form of burden.; The tonnage of a ship based on the number of tuns of wine that it could carry in its holds. historical, obsolete
"[...] and thence to Calstock, a town on the Tamar, which is washed by the sea flowing through Plymouth Sound and Hamoaze, and which place vessels of 200 tons burthen can reach at spring tides—[...]."
- 4 Archaic form of burden.; Rarely used musical tempo, meaning slow and ponderous (e.g., moving under a burden); similar to largo.
- 5 Archaic form of burden.; A section of music with the tempo mark burthen.
- 1 Archaic form of burden. alt-of, archaic
"he other men were variously burthened; some carrying picks and shovels – for that had been the very first necessary they brought ashore from the Hispaniola – others laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the midday meal."
- 2 weight down with a load wordnet
Example
More examples"Nor less, I trust, To them I may have owed another gift, Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood, In which the burthen of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, Is lightened:"
Etymology
Old form of burden. Compare similar development in murder.
More for "burthen"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.