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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

"I can have a chicken burger and it's really healthy because of the way I cooked it."

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

I like to put the fries on the burger.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

Burger King is trying to convince America it has the best burger out—and that it is worth paying for.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

For a struggling burger restaurant, this was less an offer than a small miracle.

From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026

As he ate his buffalo burger, he relived the stories Grandpa Nyles had told.

From "In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse" by Joseph Marshall III

Her father, Mark Tarlov, was a onetime speechwriter for Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger who went on to produce two of John Waters’ films and direct projects of his own.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

Burger King is trying to convince America it has the best burger out—and that it is worth paying for.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

In-N-Out Burger this week announced several menu changes in line with a recent push to reduce use of artificial dyes and processed ingredients.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

“These are not vanity trophy assets for us,” said Miller, whose firm’s other bets include consumer brands like Blank Street Coffee and 7th Street Burger.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

He spared the lives of George Dasch and Peter Burger.

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

It was here too that he formed the friendship of Bürger, to whose Academie der Schönen Redekünste, he contributed his Ariadne, and an essay on Dante.

From Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature by John Black

In 1796 he made his first adventure as an author by publishing translations of "Lenoré," and "The Wild Huntsman" of Bürger.

From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume I. The Songs of Scotland of the past half century by Charles Rogers

They were much of Scott’s mind when he was young, and translated Bürger, and “wished to heaven he had a skull and cross-bones.”

From Letters on Literature by Andrew Lang

Gottfried August Bürger, in particular, was a poet who may be said to have been made by the English ballad literature, of which he was an ardent student.

From A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers

Wieland, Merck, Bürger, Madame de Staël, Karl August, and other great people sought her acquaintance.

From The Bed-Book of Happiness by Harold Begbie

McDonald’s on Wednesday also said it would roll out bigger burgers, adding that it was exploring fresh Quarter Pounders and hot-off-the-grill preparation in more areas.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

Researchers examined a wide range of products commonly available to UK shoppers, including burgers, vegetarian chicken pieces, vegan sausages, and oat, almond and soy-based milks.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026

Their first post captured Ararat El-Rawi, bursting with energy as he served them a multicourse meal including tabbouleh, lamb burgers, spinach pie, baklava and endless wine.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

He once ordered three 4x4 burgers from In-N-Out, which is four beef patties and four slices of cheese.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

“I can hear my mom and Mika laughing at the table on the deck. I can hear burgers sizzling on the grill while her dad is being Master Griller. I can smell them too.”

From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell