Home › Glossary › Letter B

bourn

Noun
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A boundary or limit; sometimes a stream or brook in older English.

Detailed Definition
Bourn is an old literary word that can mean a boundary, limit, or, in some contexts, a small stream. Keats uses it in a pastoral landscape, and the word’s older sense may not be immediately clear to modern readers.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn” uses bourn for a small stream or boundary; cattle drink where the bourn bends beneath the hill; a rural elegy follows the bourn through alder shade; the word’s older sound lends pastoral landscape a traditional English texture
Additional Notes
The evidence contains an archaic literary word whose meaning is not obvious in modern English.; Found in the poem, To Autumn by John Keats
Also Known As
stream brook creek rivulet
Skip to main content