bourn

• (horse–hoarse merger)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɔːn/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /boɹn/
• (without the horse–hoarse merger)
  • (rhotic) IPA^(key): /boːɹn/
  • (non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /boən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

bourn (plural bourns)

1. Alternative form of bourne (“small stream or brook”).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 10:

     My little boat can safely passe this perilous bourne.

bourn (plural bourns)

1. Alternative form of bourne (“destination; limit”).

• Bornu, Broun, Bruno, buron