noun
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an anniversary of the day of one's birth
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( as modifier )
birthday present
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the day on which a person was born
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any anniversary
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of birthday
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at birth, day
Explanation
Your birthday is the day of your birth! It’s the yearly anniversary that marks the day you were born. Not everyone celebrates, but a birthday is a good excuse for a party and cake. You can use birthday both to refer to the specific day of a baby's birth, and the annual marking of that day throughout the years that follow. Sometimes people talk about the birthday of a country, group, or even a building: "It's the art museum's fiftieth birthday next year." The Old English byrddæg originally referred to the celebration of a king or saint's birth, but over the years it was extended to include everyone.
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:
His final Instagram post, shared last week, external, celebrated his 44th birthday.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
The mother-of-two, married to an economics professor with a ponytail, is a fan of heavy metal band System of a Down and held a "Sex and the City"-themed party for her 40th birthday.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
No wonder that Churchill, who had been asked to send a greeting for Baldwin’s 80th birthday, offered his terse judgment instead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
How are we spending so much on a birthday party?
From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2026
“Can we reschedule this debate? It is my birthday, after all,” I point out.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
I don’t know how you feel about birthdays.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
He was taking whatever DJ gigs he could get—weddings, milestone birthdays and once a daycare center.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Some people marked birthdays and anniversaries during the eclipse, giving the evening a romantic significance.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Among all large IPOs between 1975 and 2021, the shares of close to half were below their IPO price on their third birthdays.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 16, 2026
I was only fifty-one then, and birthdays did not seem so important.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
