burden
an onerous or difficult concern
How often you will meet it
Rank 2,296 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 7,592 times across 155,370 chapters — 0.004% of every word in the library.
What it means
noun
- an onerous or difficult concern also: load, encumbrance, incumbrance, onus the burden of responsibilitythat's a load off my mind
- weight to be borne or conveyed also: load, loading
- the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work also: effect, essence, core, gist
- the central idea that is expanded in a document or discourse
verb
- weight down with a load also: burthen, weight, weight down
- impose a task upon, assign a responsibility to also: charge, saddle He charged her with cleaning up all the files over the weekend
burden in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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Yet all the while the burden rested sore On tender hearts.
Pennsylvania Pilgrim, and other poems Part 6 From — Volume I · John Greenleaf Whittier · Chapter 1
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One evening he reached home utterly exhausted after the burden of the day's work.
Four Weird Tales · Algernon Blackwood · Chapter 1
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She seemed, somehow, to understand in some miraculous way, and to make the burden a welcome one.
Half Portions · Edna Ferber · Chapter 1
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Whereupon the soldier dispossessed himself of his burden, and stood looking down upon it in great perplexity.
How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays · Mark Twain · Chapter 1
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I then considered what I should load it with, it being not able to bear a ponderous burden.
The Life and Most Surprising Adventures · Daniel Defoe · Chapter 1