birth

American  

[burth] / bɜrθ /

noun

1. an act or instance of being born.

   the day of his birth.

2. the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring; childbirth; parturition.

   a difficult birth.

3. lineage; extraction; descent.

   of Grecian birth.

   Synonyms:

   family, blood, line, ancestry, parentage

4. high or noble lineage.

   to be foolishly vain about one's birth.

5. natural heritage.

   a musician by birth.

6. any coming into existence; origin; beginning.

   the birth of Protestantism; the birth of an idea.

   Synonyms:

   inauguration, genesis, inception, commencement, start

7. Archaic. something that is born.

---

verb (used with object)

Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S.

1. to give birth to.

2. to assist in giving birth; act as midwife for.

idioms

1. give birth to,

   1. to bear (a child).

   2. to initiate; originate.

      Her hobby gave birth to a successful business.

birth British  

/ bɜːθ /

noun

1. the process of bearing young; parturition; childbirth

2. the act or fact of being born; nativity

3. the coming into existence of something; origin

4. ancestry; lineage

   of high birth

5. noble ancestry

   a man of birth

6. natural or inherited talent

   an artist by birth

7. archaic the offspring or young born at a particular time or of a particular mother

8. 1. to bear (offspring)

   2. to produce, originate, or create (an idea, plan, etc)

---

verb

1. to bear or bring forth (a child)

birth Scientific  

/ bûrth /

1. The emergence and separation of offspring from the body of its mother, seen in all mammals except monotremes.

---

1. Present at birth, as a defect in a bodily structure.

birth More Idioms  

1. see give birth to.

---

Other Word Forms

• multibirth noun

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

By birth and baseball affiliation, Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost, is American.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 20, 2026

More than a million Cubans have left the island in recent years, and birth rates have nosedived.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 20, 2026

But after a few sustained cycles of apocalyptic coverage of this social trend, some major outlets have finally started to examine the real reasons why birth rates are dropping.

From Salon • Apr. 20, 2026

"I missed the birth of my second child because of that," he explains.

From BBC • Apr. 18, 2026

He didn’t know anything about his birth parents; all the adoption records had been sealed.

From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Related Words

• beginning
• childbirth
• creation
• delivery