birthplace

American  

[burth-pleys] / ˈbɜrθˌpleɪs /

noun

birthplaces plural

1. place of birth or origin.

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birthplace British  

/ ˈbɜːθˌpleɪs /

noun

1. the place where someone was born or where something originated

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• birthplaces
  plural

Etymology

Origin of birthplace

First recorded in 1600–10; birth + place

Explanation

The city or country where someone is born is their birthplace. If you move to Atlanta, Georgia, you can tell your friends you live in the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr. You'll often find the word birthplace describing the origin of a famous person, whether you're visiting the birthplace of Elvis Presley in Mississippi or reading about Tuskegee, Alabama, the birthplace of Rosa Parks. Birthplace also shows up on official documents like passport applications, which require you to prove your birthplace by submitting a birth certificate. The Middle English version of this word was birthstede, from stede, or "place."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

birthplace birthplaces

In June, the company signed an agreement to explore a field in Lake Maracaibo, the birthplace of Venezuela's oil industry.

From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026

This fundamental contradiction—Shanghai as the birthplace of Chinese communism and also the center of the country’s capitalist development—lies at the heart of Michael Dillon’s “Shanghai: The Story of China’s Most Dynamic City.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

The funeral, a days-long period of mourning, is set to end on Thursday, when Khamenei’s body will return from Iraq to be buried in the city of Mashhad, his birthplace.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

Not only is it a lower-cost part of the country compared to the birthplace of semiconductors in Silicon Valley, but engineers are less likely to be poached from far away, he said.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 3, 2026

Yet as I looked at the photos of Mo helping out at the refugee camps, rebuilding bombed-out villages, and replanting farms, I couldn't help but think of how that birthplace had suffered over the centuries.

From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda

Some, including the Indus River basin, are also regarded as birthplaces of human civilization.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 31, 2025

Campaigners have bid to give the birthplaces of The Beatles registered status and get official recognition for "where it all started".

From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2023

Each year, hordes of them surge from the ocean into Canada’s rivers and streams, swimming back to their birthplaces to spawn.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 30, 2023

Some were born here, others traveled here from their various birthplaces chasing something — a dream, or simply peace of mind.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2023

Does the history of technology depend on nothing more than accidents of the birthplaces of a few inventors?

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond