Word Frequency
birth (bɜːθ
)
Definitions
noun
- the process of bearing young; parturition; childbirth related adjective natal
- the act or fact of being born; nativity
- the coming into existence of something; origin
- ancestry; lineage ⇒
of high birth
- noble ancestry ⇒
a man of birth
- natural or inherited talent ⇒
an artist by birth
- (archaic) the offspring or young born at a particular time or of a particular mother
-
See give birth
verb
(rare)- to bear or bring forth (a child)
Word Origin
C12: from Old Norse byrth; related to Gothic gabaurths, Old Swedish byrdh, Old High German berd child; see bear1, bairnSynonyms
View thesaurus entry = beginning, start, rise, source, origin, emergence, outset, genesis, initiation, inauguration, inception, commencement, fountainhead
= ancestry, line, race, stock, blood, background, breeding, strain, descent, pedigree, extraction, lineage, forebears, parentage, genealogy, derivation
Quotations including 'birth'
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,Hath had elsewhere its setting,And cometh from afar"
"Birth, and copulation, and death.That's all the facts when you come to brass tacks:Birth, and copulation and death.I've been born, and once is enough"
"It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other"
"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval"
Translations for 'birth'
- British English: birth When a baby is born, you refer to this event as its birth.The twins were separated at birth.bɜːθ NOUN
- Arabic: مِيلاد
- Brazilian Portuguese: nascimento
- Chinese: 出生
- Croatian: rođenje
- Czech: narození
- Danish: fødsel
- Dutch: geboorte
- European Spanish: nacimiento
- Finnish: syntymä
- French: naissance
- German: Geburt
- Greek: γέννηση
- Italian: nascita
- Japanese: 誕生
- Korean: 출생
- Norwegian: fødsel
- Polish: narodziny
- Portuguese: nascimento
- Romanian: naștere nașteri
- Russian: рождение
- Spanish: nacimiento
- Swedish: födelse
- Thai: การเกิด
- Turkish: doğum
- Ukrainian: народження
- Vietnamese: sự sinh đẻ
Example Sentences Including 'birth'
I remember asking him:'Do you realise I'm not an Italian by birth ?Country Life (2004)
I was also, probably, about to learn my true date of birth.RESCUING ROSE (2002)
In reply Adam laid down a copy of an original birth certificate.LOST SUMMER (2002)
Not long after he had returned home his mother gave birth to his sister.BEYOND FEAR (2002)
Sophie Proust, who lives near Paris, gave birth to a 5lb 9oz baby girl in the toilet of the bus on Sunday.Glasgow Herald (2001)
Ten years later and the 1980s saw the emergence of the hostile takeover and the birth of the leveraged buyout (LBO).Irish Times (2002)
The clouds conceive not rain, or do not pour In the due birth time, down the balmy shower.Globe and Mail (2003)
There are fears that any human babies produced through cloning could have serious birth defects.Glasgow Herald (2001)
They judge people by their actions, not an accident of birth.TREASON KEEP (2001)
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