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• burger
  burger

  noun

  a hamburger.
• Burger
  Burger

  noun

  Warren Earl, 1907–1995, U.S. jurist: chief justice of the U.S. 1969–86.
• -burger
  -burger

  a combining form extracted from hamburger, occurring in compounds the initial element of which denotes a special garnish for a hamburger or a substitute ingredient for the meat patty.
• Bürger
  Bürger

  noun

  Gottfried August (ˈɡɔtfriːt ˈauɡʊst). 1747–94, German lyric poet, noted particularly for his ballad Lenore (1773)

burger

¹ American  

[bur-ger] / ˈbɜr gər /

noun

• burgers
  plural

1. a hamburger.

2. a food patty, or patty on a bun, containing ingredients other than beef.

   veggie or turkey burgers.

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Burger ² American  

[bur-ger] / ˈbɜr gər /

noun

1. Warren Earl, 1907–1995, U.S. jurist: chief justice of the U.S. 1969–86.

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-burger ³ American  

1. a combining form extracted from hamburger, occurring in compounds the initial element of which denotes a special garnish for a hamburger or a substitute ingredient for the meat patty.

   baconburger; cheeseburger; fishburger.

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burger ¹ British  

/ ˈbɜːɡə /

noun

1. informal

   1. short for hamburger

   2. ( in combination )

      a cheeseburger

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Bürger ² British  

/ ˈbyrɡər /

noun

1. Gottfried August (ˈɡɔtfriːt ˈauɡʊst). 1747–94, German lyric poet, noted particularly for his ballad Lenore (1773)

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Usage

What does -burger mean? The combining form -burger is used like a suffix indicating a kind of hamburger or other patty in a sandwich bun. The form -burger comes from the end of the word hamburger, meaning "a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground beef in a roll or bun." The word hamburger itself comes from a shortening of a dish named Hamburger steak, from the German city of Hamburg.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• burgers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of burger

1935–40, extracted from hamburger by false analysis as ham ¹ + burger

Explanation

A grilled beef patty on a bun is called a burger. Lunch at a fast food restaurant often consists of a burger and fries. You can use the word burger as a casual shorthand for hamburger, which is ground or minced beef that's fried and served on a bun. A burger can also be made of other ingredients, like turkey or tofu or lamb. In fact, if you shape food into a patty, grill it, and put it on a roll or bun, you can call it a burger. The word was first used in 1939, from hamburger.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

burger Burger -burger Bürger burgers

Menu offerings include appetizers such as Dungeness crab cakes and lobster corn dogs, and entrées such as crispy chicken Milanese, honey miso glazed salmon and a signature Skywalker Ranch Wagyu burger.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

But today, as the burger chain’s new CEO tries to reverse more than a year of weaker sales trends, a new approach may be needed.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 8, 2026

Burger King executives said Thursday that work to revamp its signature Whopper burger earlier this year helped deliver an 8.5% increase in domestic U.S. same-store sales for the three months ended June 30.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

"To maximise our profit, maybe we'd have to charge $13 for a burger," says Paul.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

Eating a burger at Zack’s would be so much better than eating a turkey wrap from the cafeteria, but nothing would make me miss this meeting with Mrs. Parker.

From "Piecing Me Together" by Renée Watson

Restaurant Brands International reported higher second-quarter profit, driven by strong sales growth at Burger King U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

In July, Burger King said it would guarantee Whopper quality, promising to remake unsatisfactory orders and provide a future Whopper for free.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Restaurant Brands International’s profit rose in the second quarter, driven by a standout performance at Burger King U.S. that bucked a broader trend of slowing fast-food demand across other major chains.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Arguments that Burger and Bork dismissed as fringe advocacy became orthodox within conservative legal circles.

From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026

Later that day, George Dasch and Peter Burger were sitting at a table with fine china, silverware, and crisp white linen napkins.

From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple

The suffix -burger is loaned from hamburger to form cheeseburger or veggie burger - even though a hamburger refers to its origins in Hamburg, Germany, not to a burger made from ham.

From BBC ● May 11, 2013

Bürger which contrasts the naked rights of labor with the historic rights of rank in so sharp a fashion that, if it should be published today, it would undoubtedly be confiscated as communist literature.

From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 08 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes by Various

Then, more lately, what songs have not Bürger and Voss composed!

From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 02 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes by Kuno Francke

Lenore, the heroine of a celebrated ballad by Bürger, the German lyric poet, a maiden whose lover dies and whose spectre appears to her on horseback and carries her off mounted behind him.

From The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by P. Austin Nuttall

In 1794 the plan for The Hours was realized under favorable auspices, and in the same year occurred the death of Bürger.

From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 04 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes by Kuno Francke

German minor poetry, now quite forgotten, attracted him almost as much as the great pages of Schiller, Bürger, and Goethe.

From After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 by Major W. E Frye

More Americans were expected to spurn pricier steaks and burgers in favor of cheaper chicken sandwiches and tenders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

McDonald’s in 2023 debuted a renovation of its Big Mac and other core burgers in the U.S., promising hotter and juicier sandwiches.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Food trucks and bars were scattered throughout, serving up tacos, burgers, hot dogs and other hand-held bites.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

Supporters from across India are literally feeding "cockroach" education-reform protesters camped in the capital, sending a deluge of pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and tea.

From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026

“I don’t get you. Most kids would kill to eat burgers and fries every night.”

From "Free Lunch" by Rex Ogle