birth certificate

American  

noun

• birth certificates
  plural

1. an official form recording the birth of a baby and containing pertinent data, as name, sex, date, place, and parents.

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birth certificate British  

noun

1. an official form giving details of the time and place of a person's birth, and his or her name, sex, mother's name and (usually) father's name

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• birth certificates
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of birth certificate

First recorded in 1895–1900

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

birth certificate

Omar says she no longer has her birth certificate, and records with the Somali government are unsurprisingly unavailable, given the country’s decades of internal turmoil.

From Slate ● Oct. 13, 2026

"Since I'm not Sudanese, I have no birth certificate, so... I can't go there," she explained.

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

“If your family is homeless and sleeping in your car, you’re not really focused on where’s my birth certificate, where’s my documentation.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026

He had no surname until his final year of high school, when he applied for a birth certificate.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

Grace saw Maya’s birth certificate, her parents’ names carefully typed in, and a small set of baby footprints.

From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway

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