A responsibility or duty: The burden of organizing the campaign fell to me.
Nautical The amount of cargo that a vessel can carry.
Nautical The weight of the cargo carried by a vessel at one time.
A source of great worry or stress; weight: The burden of economic sacrifice rests on the workers of the plant.
The amount of a disease-causing entity present in an organism.
To weigh down; oppress.
To load or overload.
A principal or recurring idea; a theme: "The burden of what he said was to defend enthusiastically the conservative aristocracy” ( J.A. Froude). See Synonyms at substance.
Music The chorus or refrain of a composition, especially of a 15th-century carol.