burdensome

UK/ˈbɜː.dən.səm/US/ˈbɝ.dən.səm/

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,961 of 15,258neutral

Burdensome means heavy to carry or hard to bear. Burdensome paperwork.

It is used far more of duties and rules than of anything physical. Anything burdensome is not necessarily unreasonable, which is the argument every regulator makes.

Definitions of burdensome

1adjectiveburdensomeHeavy to carry or hard to bear.C1
“The reporting was burdensome enough to close two small charities.”

burdensome is a quality.

Where it comes from

Burden plus -some, an old ending meaning tending to cause.

Proto-Indo-European
*bʰer- — to carry, bear
Proto-Germanic
*burþį̄
Proto-West Germanic
*burþini
Old English
byrden
Middle English
birthene
English
burden
English, today
burdensome

From burden + some. burden Middle English birthene, birthen, birden, from Old English byrden, byrþen, from Proto-West Germanic burþini, from burþī, from Proto-Germanic burþį̄, from Proto-Indo-European bʰer- (“to carry, bear”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

burdensome in the wild

Many of the funerary objects and large pottery were too burdensome to be removed, and so were left in the tombs or destroyed.
Necropolis of Kerkouane
The office was created on 20 July 2010 to identify complexities in the tax system burdensome to both businesses and individual taxpayers in order to recommend their reduction.
Office of Tax Simplification
The abbey, finding the property burdensome, induced Richard to transfer it to the monastery of Tywardreath which he was then founding.
Cardinham Grange

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the byrden family

burden

burdensome — used about once every 159,543 pages · #14,961 · point at the bar for the others

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