DictionaryAI

birth

SayBURTH/bɜɹθ/UK/bɜːθ/

Pluralbirths

Verbbirths, birthing, birthed

8 meanings of birth

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountable or uncountable
    The act or process of being born or of giving birth to a baby or young animal; also, one occurrence of this.

    The doctor monitored the baby's heart rate throughout the birth.

    In most mammals, birth occurs after a long period of gestation.

    UsageCommon in give birth to a baby, at birth and from birth. Single deliveries can be counted: three births, a difficult birth.

    Oppositedeath

  2. 2
    have a babyverbtransitive
    To bear a child or other young, or to help deliver one.

    She birthed her first child in a small rural clinic.

    Many mammals birth their young in concealed dens.

    UsageGive birth to is much more common, especially for literal childbirth: she gave birth to twins.

    Similarbear, deliver, have

    Note

    The verb was formed from the noun as early as Middle English birthen. It covers more than the mother's part: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!" from the 1939 Gone with the Wind screenplay is about delivering someone else's child. It also draws complaints: a woman quoted in Jonathan Bouquet's 2023 column collects lines like "Beyoncé birthed her twins" to object to them.

  3. 3
    beginningnouncountable
    The beginning or start of something; its point of origin.

    The 1990s saw the birth of the modern internet.

    The meeting in her kitchen marked the birth of the town's first food bank.

    UsageUsually the birth of something: the birth of jazz, the birth of the internet.

    Similardawn, beginning, emergence, origin, start (entry)

    Oppositeend, demise

  4. 4
    give rise toverbfigurativelytransitive
    To bring something into existence; to produce or give rise to it.

    The Enlightenment birthed modern ideas of individual liberty.

    Small online communities often birth slang that the rest of the internet picks up a year later.

    Similarspawn, produce, create, generate, engender

  5. 5
    biologicaladjective
    Designating a family relationship established by biological childbirth rather than by adoption or marriage.

    After the adoption, she still wondered about her birth parents.

    The court agreed that the birth mother could keep writing to the child once the adoption was final.

    UsageUsed before a noun: birth mother, birth parents, birth family.

    Similarbiological, natural

    Oppositeadoptive

  6. 6
    family ranknoununcountable
    The circumstances of a person's ancestry, social rank, or family background.

    She was of noble birth but chose to live modestly.

    Under the old system, birth counted for more than talent when officers were chosen.

    UsageUsually with a describing word and no a: of noble birth, of humble birth.

    Similardescent, ancestry, lineage, parentage, origin

    Note

    On its own, without an adjective, the word could mean good birth specifically. Anthony Trollope's Framley Parsonage (1860–61) says Lucy "had no birth, in the high-life sense of the word."

Less common meanings

  1. 7
    nounarchaiccountable or uncountable
    Someone or something that has been born; offspring.
    That poets are far rarer births than kings.
    1692, Ben Jonson, “Epigrams”
    Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself.
    1761, Joseph Addison, The Works of Joseph Addison

    Similarnewborn, offspring

    Note

    Here the word names what is born rather than the event, and it can be counted or not. Ben Jonson counts poets one by one as "far rarer births than kings." Joseph Addison has birds "tend the birth," folding a whole brood into one uncountable noun. Both writers belong to the 1600s and 1700s, and a modern writer would more likely say offspring.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Ben Jonson used the plural births for poets in the quoted wording. hollowaypages.com
    • Joseph Addison wrote tend the birth about animals hatching and caring for their offspring, using birth collectively. gutenberg.org
    • Jonson belongs to the seventeenth-century literary period. en.wikipedia.org
    • Addison belongs to the eighteenth-century literary period. en.wikipedia.org
  2. 8
    nounobsolete
    Obsolete spelling of berth.
    The road was very narrow, with no opportunity of giving the apparent phantom what seamen call a wide birth.
    1830, Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
    [W]ith worldly wisdom, the first comer hastens to secure the best birth in the coach for himself, and to make the most convenient arrangement for his baggage before the arrival of his competitor.
    1816, [Walter Scott], The Antiquary
    Note

    A different word, today written berth, though it probably grew from the same verb bear, in the sense of bearing off or keeping clear. Its meaning has nothing to do with childbearing. Eighteenth-century writers still mark it as sea talk. Daniel Defoe's surgeon goes "to get a Birth, as the Sailors call it," meaning a post aboard. Henry Fielding's ship returns to its anchoring place, "or birth, as the captain called it." Frances Burney's "good warm birth" already stretches it to any snug spot.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Nautical birth is an obsolete spelling of berth. en.wiktionary.org
    • Eighteenth-century writers explicitly identify this vocabulary as nautical. en.wiktionary.org
    • Defoe describes a surgeon seeking a birth, meaning a shipboard job; the quoted words belong to the narration. en.wiktionary.org
    • Fielding describes returning to the former anchoring place and attributes the term birth to the captain. en.wiktionary.org
    • Burney uses good warm birth for a comfortable place indoors, extending the nautical meaning. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1, 3, 5–7

From Middle English birthe (1250), earlier burthe, from Old Norse burðr, which replaced Old English ġebyrd. It goes back to Proto-Germanic *burdiz and ultimately to Proto-Indo-European *bʰŕ̥tis, from the root *bʰer- ("to carry, bear"); it is thus equivalent to bear + -th.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

Meanings 2, 4

From Middle English birthen, derived from the noun birth.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts