birch
Americannoun
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any tree or shrub of the genus Betula, comprising species with a smooth, laminated outer bark and close-grained wood.
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the wood itself.
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a birch rod, or a bundle of birch twigs, used especially for whipping.
adjective
verb (used with object)
noun
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any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula, having thin peeling bark See also silver birch
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the hard close-grained wood of any of these trees
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a bundle of birch twigs or a birch rod used, esp formerly, for flogging offenders
adjective
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of, relating to, or belonging to the birch
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consisting or made of birch
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of birch
before 900; Middle English birche, Old English birce; cognate with Old High German birka ( German Birke ); akin to Sanskrit bhūrja kind of birch
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Days after federal agents raided a South Florida wood importer’s warehouse and seized stacks of Chinese-made birch plywood, an order for another load of the illegal panels arrived from a big building-products distributor.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026
Red brick buildings stand alongside towering maple, oak, birch and sycamore trees.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
Only raccoons are said to live in the Karlshorst buildings and birch saplings are sprouting out of a balcony.
From Barron's • Feb. 8, 2026
In the fall of 2019, my husband sat me down in our Hudson Valley kitchen, which overlooked our old birch.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 21, 2025
The farther south the forest went, the more dry birch and pine would give way to the swampy shores of the messy, meandering Sogozha.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
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.
