How to spell burst

hear itburst/bɜrst/verbLong vowels

What it means: To break open suddenly.

In a sentence: The balloon made a loud noise when it burst.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as berst or bursted.

Same family: bursting, burst into, burst out, exploded, break open. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Burst” comes from Old English “berstan,” meaning to break or shatter. It is an irregular verb whose past tense is also “burst,” which is why forms like “bursted” are considered incorrect in standard English.

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