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“Born” or “Bourn” or “Bourne”

born / bourn / bourne are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term.

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Definitions

What each term means

Same sound, different spellings and meanings, shown with a pronunciation guide for each term.

born b·AO·r·n

  • nounBritish nuclear physicist (born in Germany) honored for his contributions to quantum mechanics (1882-1970).
  • adjectivebrought into existence.

bourn b·AO·r·n

  • nounan archaic term for a boundary.
  • nounan archaic term for a goal or destination.

bourne b·AO·r·n

No dictionary entry for this spelling — see the usage examples below for how it shows up in writing.

Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“born”

  • Born in Detroit, Michigan, he holds…
  • Julieanne Newbould (born 1957), Australian actress
  • He was born in Fukuoka, attending high school…
  • Gilboe was born in 1914.
  • Fidel Antonio Vargas (born 28 July 1992) is a…
  • Chief Anthony Iluobe (JP) was born in 1945 to the family…
  • Larry Rakestraw (born 1942), American football player
  • Tetsuya Nakashima (中島哲也) (born 1959) is a Japanese film
  • Paulette Rakestraw (born 1967), American politician from the…
  • Brian Newbould (born 1936), British composer, conductor and

“bourn”

  • Bourn Brook, Cambridgeshire
  • Bournbrook, Birmingham named after the Bourn…
  • …succeeded by his nephew, Samuel Bourn.
  • Bourn Brook
  • 1696-1720: Samuel Bourn, died in office (nephew of…
  • Bourn Brook is a common name…

“bourne”

  • …the birthright of an eighth-generation Bourne."
  • After his father, Lawrence Bourne Jr. (George Plimpton), refuses to…
  • Tom Hanks as Lawrence Bourne III
  • Bourne (disambiguation)
  • …Washburn, in the novel The Bourne Identity
  • …by the British choreographer Matthew Bourne premiered at Sadler's Wells Theatre…
  • …Music, Michael Kennedy and Joyce Bourne, 1996
  • …The Matrix Revolutions (2003), [[The Bourne Supremacy (film)|The Bourne Supremacy (2004)]],…
  • …files, only the standard Unix Bourne shell sh is usually required.
  • Lawrence Bourne III (Tom Hanks), is a…

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions are drawn from WordNet.

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