birth
Americannoun
-
an act or instance of being born.
the day of his birth.
-
the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring; childbirth; parturition.
a difficult birth.
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lineage; extraction; descent.
of Grecian birth.
-
high or noble lineage.
to be foolishly vain about one's birth.
-
natural heritage.
a musician by birth.
-
any coming into existence; origin; beginning.
the birth of Protestantism; the birth of an idea.
- Synonyms:
- inauguration, genesis, inception, commencement, start
-
Archaic. something that is born.
verb (used with object)
-
to give birth to.
-
to assist in giving birth; act as midwife for.
idioms
noun
-
the process of bearing young; parturition; childbirth
-
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
-
-
to bear (offspring)
-
to produce, originate, or create (an idea, plan, etc)
-
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
birthsimple
-
birthssimple
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have birthedperfect
-
has birthedperfect
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am birthingprogressive
-
are birthingprogressive
-
is birthingprogressive
-
have been birthingperfect progressive
-
has been birthingperfect progressive
Past
-
birthedsimple
-
had birthedperfect
-
was birthingprogressive
-
were birthingprogressive
-
had been birthingperfect progressive
Future
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; cf. bear 1 ( def. ), -th 1 ( def. )
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.
See Examples For:
The birth of the red scare often is dated to Feb. 9, 1950.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Your payment date depends on your birth date, so your first payment will generally arrive the month after your first month of entitlement, regardless of whether your birthday is on, say, Oct.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
A total of 265 couples have married after meeting on an AI-powered dating app launched by the Tokyo government in 2024 to lift Japan's low birth rate, according to official data.
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026
It was their first evening out since their son's birth.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
There had been nearly seventy years between my father’s death and his birth, but he felt the loss as if it were his own.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Recent CDC data analyzing the years 1990 to 2023 found that births to women 40 and over increased a whopping 193%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Like elsewhere in the world, births have plummeted in South Korea as the country has grown wealthier.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
“Babies are cute. They look great on a poster,” Slopen said, adding that births are happy occasions.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
Despite a significant proportion of American births to single mothers, the number of unmarried women giving birth has actually been decreasing for the past decade, with the decline largely driven by teenagers and working-class women.
From Slate ● Jul. 6, 2026
It caused quite a flurry in a family with a history of more births than graduations.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
Sociology is in many ways the mother of all social sciences, she who hath birthed dozens of disciplines ranging from criminology to postcolonial studies to ethnic studies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Its complexity has birthed an industry of affordable-housing-focused developers, investors, lawyers and accounting specialists who profit off the tax credit.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
It also created the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network that ultimately birthed the internet.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
To display his photographs in rapid succession, Muybridge invented a device that birthed the motion picture.
From Slate ● May 25, 2026
There she built her nest, ironed shirts, potted bleeding hearts, played with her cat, and birthed Louis Junior.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
Like the spine, the human pelvis must balance two competing demands: efficient bipedal walking and birthing large-brained infants.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
The state plans to later expand to additional hospitals and birthing centers.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
Doctors at St. Louis-based Mercy, which runs birthing hospitals in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, began noticing an uptick in families turning down the vitamin K shot during the pandemic.
From Salon ● May 7, 2026
In the 1920s and 30s the Marine Drive corniche, with its Art Deco buildings was constructed, birthing a uniquely modern architectural style that departed from the earlier Victorian Gothic character.
From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026
I was certain the birthing would kill both of us, just as it had Mama.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
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.
