Born

How to spell born

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce born

What does born mean?

1. adjectiveBrought into life by birth; existing as a result of being born.
2. adjectiveHaving a particular quality or ability from birth; naturally suited to something.

Born in a sentence

• She was born in a small hospital just outside the city.

• She is a born leader who calms the whole team in a crisis.

• The twins were born three minutes apart on a winter morning.

• Their youngest child is a born storyteller who keeps everyone listening.

Where does born come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the old past participle of the verb 'bear', from Old English 'beran', meaning to carry, to bring forth, or to give birth to. The Old English participle was 'boren', which over the centuries lost its middle vowel and settled into the modern spelling 'born'. English eventually split this single participle into two specialised spellings: 'born' was kept for the sense of being given birth to, while 'borne' was reserved for the senses of being carried or endured, as in 'airborne' or 'she has borne the cost'. The root 'beran' is deeply Germanic and is a cousin of words across the family, including the German 'gebären', to give birth. That shared history is exactly why 'born' and 'borne' are so easy to mix up, since both descend from the very same word and sound identical.

How the word is built

• born (Old English boren, past participle of beran: to bear, to bring forth)

Words that sound like born

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• borne: Past participle of 'bear': having carried, supported, or endured something.