Boundaries

How to spell boundaries

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce boundaries

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does boundaries mean?

1. nounThe lines or limits that mark the edges of an area, or the limits of what is acceptable.

Boundaries in a sentence

• The survey clearly marked the boundaries of the property.

• Good managers set firm boundaries between work and personal life.

Where does boundaries come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows out of the older English noun 'bound', meaning a limit or border, which English took in the 1200s from Old French 'bonde' or 'bodne', itself from a Medieval Latin word 'bodina' or 'butina' that referred to a marked border. To this base English added the suffix '-ary', borrowed from Latin '-arium', to form the noun 'boundary', meaning the line that marks the edge of something. The first recorded uses of 'boundary' cluster in the 1600s, when surveying and the legal marking of land made a single tidy word for an edge genuinely useful. The plural 'boundaries' simply adds '-es' after the 'y' shifts to 'i', which is the spelling step that trips writers who expect to keep the 'y'. The same humble 'bound' lurks inside familiar words like 'abound' and 'bourne', and remembering that the core is 'bound' helps fix the 'ound' in the middle.

How the word is built

• bound (a limit or border)
• -ary (noun-forming suffix)
• -es (plural)