English Reference
Adjective

burdensome

adj.
C1 Advanced US /ˈbɝdənsəm/ UK /bˈɜːdənsˌʌm/ bur·den·some

adj.causing a lot of worry, trouble, or physical weight. You use this to describe things that are hard to carry or hard to deal with.

adj.causing a heavy load or a significant amount of worry and trouble. Often used to describe legal obligations, physical weights, or administrative tasks.


SIMPLE

The new tax laws are burdensome for small businesses.

CONTEXTUAL

The heavy backpack became burdensome after hours of hiking through the mountain trail.

COMPLEX

The legal team argued that the proposed regulations would be burdensome for local farmers, potentially stifling the industry's growth and innovation.

And that’s because campaigning anywhere for any office at any level of government is personally burdensome, as we show in our book.

The Conversation· 20 Aug 2026

Some researchers also advocate for paying peer reviewers, though others worry that the practice would increase the burdensome publication fees researchers already face.

Ars Technica· 10 Aug 2026

From burden + -some.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Level C1 · Advanced
Frequency Occasional
Updated