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:
It was even flown across the country for an 80th birthday.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
“My birthday is coming up next month, and I told him, I said, ‘Babe, you don’t even have to get me anything.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026
When the Tulane University freshman woke up on his birthday this August, his first order of business as a legal adult was opening a brokerage account and a high-yield savings account.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
Still, she was excited to celebrate her birthday by seeing Sheeran, and was especially looking forward to her favorite song, “Perfect.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
Some of the lines are silly—about how he hogged the pepperoni pizza at our birthday party, put an obviously recyclable cup in the trash, and often leaves his shoelaces untied.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
As Loretta Savery’s longtime jeweler, Nelson Holdo remembered the little details: birthdays and anniversaries, where her sons went to college, their majors and if they had girlfriends.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
Swimming pools, playgrounds and birthdays are recurring subjects for Mr. Adams, and we can see him drawing from the likes of David Hockney, Alex Katz and Robert Colescott.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 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
"He used to push me around in my pram. He was always there at family birthdays, and he was always there at Christmas."
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Two birthdays now I have had in the Congo, and I thought the first one was the worst there could be.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
