# burden

Pronunciation: say "BUR-duhn" US /ˈbɝdn̩/, UK /ˈbɜːdn̩/

## Noun

1. A duty, responsibility, or difficulty that is hard to bear and causes worry, hardship, or strain.
   - Simple: Something difficult that you have to deal with, like a duty or a worry, that weighs on you.
   - _The constant criticism became a burden she could no longer endure._
   - _Years of secrecy weighed on him like an unbearable burden._
2. A heavy load carried by a person or animal.
   - Simple: A heavy thing that a person or animal must carry.
   - _The porters hauled their burdens across the mountain pass._
   - _He shifted the burden onto his other shoulder._
4. The total quantity of toxins, parasites, cancer cells, or similar harmful agents present in an organism.
   - Simple: The total amount of harmful things like germs or poisons inside a living body.
   - _The treatment significantly reduced the tumor burden in most patients._
   - _Researchers measured the parasite burden in each infected host._
5. The central theme or main point of a speech, argument, or piece of writing.
   - Simple: The main idea or message of something that is said or written.
   - _The burden of the report was that reform could no longer be delayed._
   - _Throughout the sermon, the burden remained the same: forgiveness._
6. The refrain of a ballad or folk song: a phrase or theme that comes back after every verse.
   - Simple: A line or tune that comes back at the end of each verse in a song.
   - _The ballad's burden was repeated by the audience after each stanza._
   - _Old sea songs often carried a rolling burden the crew sang together._
7. The carrying capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo it can hold.
   - Simple: The amount of cargo that a ship is able to carry.
   - _The merchant ship was rated at three hundred tons burden._
   - _Shipbuilders recorded each vessel's burden in the register._

## Verb

3. To load someone or something with a heavy weight, duty, or problem.
   - Simple: To give someone something heavy or hard to deal with, like extra work or worry.
   - _They burdened the new employee with tasks no one else wanted._
   - _Heavy taxes burden families already struggling to pay rent._

## Noun

8. A birth; the act of bringing forth a child. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The act of giving birth to a child.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The continuous low drone sounded by a bagpipe beneath the melody.
- (noun) A fixed quantity of certain commodities, used as a standard unit of measure.
- (noun) The ore and flux charged into a blast furnace with the fuel, or the proportion in which they are mixed with it.
- (noun) The upper layers, or heads, of a stream-work that lie over the bed of tin.
- (noun) In rock blasting, the distance from a row of blastholes to the free face of the excavation, or between successive rows, measured at right angles to that face.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–4, 7–8** — This sense comes from Middle English burden (also burthen, byrthen), from Old English byrden, going back through Proto-Germanic to the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰer- meaning "to carry, bear."
**Meanings 5–6** — Medieval Latin burdō gave Old French bordon ("drone"), which became Middle English burdoun ("accompaniment"), the source of this sense. Bourdon is a doublet.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/burden (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).