burger
noun
a hamburger.
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burger
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Burger
BurgernounWarren Earl, 1907–1995, U.S. jurist: chief justice of the U.S. 1969–86.
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-burger
-burgera 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.
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Bürger
BürgernounGottfried August (ˈɡɔtfriːt ˈauɡʊst). 1747–94, German lyric poet, noted particularly for his ballad Lenore (1773)
burger
1 American
[bur-ger]
/ ˈbɜr gər /
noun
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burgers
plural
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a hamburger.
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a food patty, or patty on a bun, containing ingredients other than beef.
veggie or turkey burgers.
Burger
2
American
[bur-ger]
/ ˈbɜr gər /
noun
-burger
3
American
burger
1
British
/ ˈbɜːɡə /
noun
Bürger
2
British
/ ˈbyrɡər /
noun
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
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In addition to upscale restaurants, Wagyu has become an offering at stadiums and fast-food chains including Arby’s, which has served it in burger form.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
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
Russell Reynolds Associates on why some CFOs may make good CEOs; Burger King and McDonald’s reach new phase in burger wars; Sen. Elizabeth Warren presses Trump on inflation-data changes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Kids playing blocks away said they saw it whiz by, and legend has it that people fighting in the burger joint parking lot stopped to watch.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
Pringles, Burger King all went with ultra-minimal redesigns, as if anyone would see Pringles as a forward-thinking tech company and not the perfect contraption to get sour cream–and–onion dust all over your hands.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
Known for its flame-grilled beef, Burger King has struggled for years with outdated restaurants and menu mistakes, like a hand-breaded chicken sandwich that was hard to make.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Burger King topped both of its main rivals in visit growth in July, according to Placer.ai, which analyzes foot traffic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Earlier this month Burger King reported an 8.5% increase in U.S. same-store sales over its most recent quarter, beating McDonald’s results by the largest margin in at least two years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
In the early hours of the morning, they went their separate ways and Burger returned to his hotel room.
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
Wieland, Merck, Bürger, Madame de Staël, Karl August, and other great people sought her acquaintance.
From The Bed-Book of Happiness by Harold Begbie
Eight Songs: words by Claudius, Sophie von Mereau, Bürger, Goethe, and Lessing; partly composed in Bonn before 1792.
From Beethoven: A Memoir (2nd Ed.) by Elliott Graeme
His early poems are echoes of Klopstock, Matthisson, Hölty, Bürger, and other predecessors; but especially of Schiller, whose moral seriousness and sonorous language alike inspired the serious and rhetorically gifted youth.
From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 09 Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig by Various
He disliked Goethe, and he quoted with approval the saying of the poet Klopstock, whom he met at Hamburg, that he placed the romanticist Bürger above both Goethe and Schiller.
From From Chaucer to Tennyson by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers
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
Brinker International guided for another year of profitable growth, as its Chili’s chain continues to attract value-seeking diners with its Triple Dipper appetizer, burgers and ribs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
The new pizza, called the Domino, aims to draw diners that might otherwise go for burgers or chicken sandwiches, and who may not want to share.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 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
Mexican-inspired fast food can pack in more flavor than burgers and chicken sandwiches and offer more room for innovation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
I told them I was tired from flipping burgers all day and that I was just going to stay home and relax.
From "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
