CEFR C1

bairn

noun

Meaning

Bairn means child. It is a regional word, especially associated with Scottish English and Northern English, and often sounds warm, old-fashioned, or dialectal outside those regions.

Examples

She brought the bairn inside before the rain started.
He still remembers playing by the river when he was a wee bairn.

Synonyms: child, kid, youngster

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bairn (C1)

noun

Pronunciation: /bɛːrn/

Definition

Bairn means child. It is a regional word, especially associated with Scottish English and Northern English, and often sounds warm, old-fashioned, or dialectal outside those regions.

Examples

She brought the bairn inside before the rain started.
He still remembers playing by the river when he was a wee bairn.
The story uses bairn to give the dialogue a Scottish feeling.

How to Use bairn

a wee bairn (regional phrase): a small child — "He was just a wee bairn in those days."
the bairn (dialect noun phrase): the child being talked about — "The bairn was asleep by the fire."
bairns and families (plural phrase): children and their relatives — "The event welcomed bairns and families from the village."

Synonyms of bairn

Words with a similar meaning to bairn:

Antonyms of bairn

Words with the opposite meaning to bairn:

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