Bun

How to spell bun

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bun

What does bun mean?

1. nounA small, often sweet, round bread roll.
2. nounHair coiled and pinned into a rounded knot, usually at the back of the head.

Bun in a sentence

• She split the bun and spread butter on both halves.

• The dancer pinned her hair into a neat bun before rehearsal.

• The burger came on a toasted sesame bun.

• He twisted his long hair into a loose bun at the back.

Where does bun come from?

Language of origin: French

The origin of bun is genuinely uncertain, which is why etymologists still debate it. It appears in English from around the late 1300s, written as bunne or bonne, referring to a small, sweetened bread roll. One popular suggestion links it to the Old French bugne, meaning a swelling or a lump (the same idea that gave French beignet, a fried dough fritter), since a bun is essentially a rounded lump of dough. The rounded shape also explains how, by the eighteenth century, the word was borrowed to describe hair coiled into a tight, rounded knot at the back of the head. Because the word is so short and the spelling so plain, the only thing a writer has to remember is the single n, which keeps it distinct from longer relatives.

How the word is built

• bun (single root, no affixes)