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burgh

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burgh¹

  • /ˈbʌɹə/ UK, Scotland
  • /ˈbʌɹoʊ/ US
  • /bɝoʊ/ US
  • /bɝɡ/ US

Sounds like borough, berg, burg · Rhymes with -ʌɹə, -ʌɹəʊ, -ɜː(ɹ)ɡ

Where it comes from

From Middle English borwe, borgh, burgh, buruh, from Old English burh, from Proto-West Germanic *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“city, stronghold”). Cf. Strasbourg.

Cognate with Dutch burg, French bourg, German Burg, Persian برج (borj, “tower; battlement, fort”), Swedish borg. Doublet of borough, Brough, and Bury.

noun burghs

  1. A small mound, often used in reference to tumuli (mostly restricted to place names).
  2. UK A borough or chartered town (now only used as an official subdivision in Scotland). 1815, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book Eighth, The Parsonage, lines 95-104, http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww405.html With fruitless pains / Might one like me 'now' visit many a tract / Which, in his youth, he trod, and trod again, / A lone pedestrian with a scanty freight, / Wished-for, or welc

Burgh²

  • /ˈbʌɹə/
  • /ˈbʌɹoʊ/
  • /ˈbɜː(ɹ)ɡ/
  • /ˈbɜː(ɹ)/

Where it comes from

From the Anglo-Norman word burgh.

proper noun de Burgh · Burke · Bourke · Bourg · de Bourg · Burgo

  1. A topographical surname from Anglo-Norman for someone who lived in a fortified place.

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"burgh." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/burgh. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

burgh. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/burgh

Chicago

"burgh." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/burgh.

BibTeX
@misc{burgh_2026,
  title = {burgh},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/burgh},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}