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Synonyms

birth

American  
[burth] / bɜrθ /

noun

  1. an act or instance of being born.

    the day of his birth.

  2. the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring; childbirth; parturition.

    a difficult birth.

  3. lineage; extraction; descent.

    of Grecian birth.
    Synonyms:
    family, blood, line, ancestry, parentage

  4. high or noble lineage.

    to be foolishly vain about one's birth.

  5. natural heritage.

    a musician by birth.

  6. any coming into existence; origin; beginning.

    the birth of Protestantism; the birth of an idea.
    Synonyms:
    inauguration, genesis, inception, commencement, start

  7. Archaic. something that is born.

verb (used with object)

Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S.

  1. to give birth to.

  2. to assist in giving birth; act as midwife for.

idioms

  1. give birth to,

    1. to bear (a child).

    2. to initiate; originate.

      Her hobby gave birth to a successful business.
birth British  
/ bɜːθ /

noun

  1. the process of bearing young; parturition; childbirth

  2. the act or fact of being born; nativity

  3. the coming into existence of something; origin

  4. ancestry; lineage

    of high birth

  5. noble ancestry

    a man of birth

  6. natural or inherited talent

    an artist by birth

  7. archaic the offspring or young born at a particular time or of a particular mother

    1. to bear (offspring)

    2. to produce, originate, or create (an idea, plan, etc)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to bear or bring forth (a child)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
birth Scientific  
/ bûrth /

  1. The emergence and separation of offspring from the body of its mother, seen in all mammals except monotremes.

  1. Present at birth, as a defect in a bodily structure.

birth More Idioms  

  1. see give birth to.

Other Word Forms

  • multibirth noun

Etymology

Origin of birth

First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English byrthe, from Scandinavian; compare Old Swedish byrth; cognate with Old English gebyrd, Old High German giburt, Gothic gabaurths; bear 1 ( def. ), -th 1 ( def. )

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.