birthplace

American  

[burth-pleys] / ˈbɜrθˌpleɪs /

noun

• birthplaces
  plural

1. place of birth or origin.

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birthplace British  

/ ˈbɜːθˌpleɪs /

noun

1. the place where someone was born or where something originated

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• birthplaces
  plural

Etymology

Origin of birthplace

First recorded in 1600–10; birth + place

Explanation

The city or country where someone is born is their birthplace. If you move to Atlanta, Georgia, you can tell your friends you live in the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr. You'll often find the word birthplace describing the origin of a famous person, whether you're visiting the birthplace of Elvis Presley in Mississippi or reading about Tuskegee, Alabama, the birthplace of Rosa Parks. Birthplace also shows up on official documents like passport applications, which require you to prove your birthplace by submitting a birth certificate. The Middle English version of this word was birthstede, from stede, or "place."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

birthplace birthplaces

Paramount Skydance Chief Executive David Ellison faces a pivotal decision: Should he uproot his Hollywood studio — the birthplace of such film classics as “Sunset Boulevard,” “The Godfather” and “Beverly Hills Cop”?

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

At the other extreme, she becomes artist-in-residence of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, where she will serve as pianist, conductor and curator in Beethoven’s birthplace.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026

It said the site was also "the birthplace of future UK science pioneers", as it welcomed "more than 25,000 schoolchildren every year".

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

In June, the company signed an agreement to explore a field in Lake Maracaibo, the birthplace of Venezuela's oil industry.

From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026

For James Madison and Paul Jennings both, it was a return to their birthplace.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

But Fifa said investigators obtained original birth certificates of the grandparents, which showed that they were born in countries like Argentina and Spain - all corresponding with the players' birthplaces.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2025

In the icy regions of their birthplaces, where planets receive little warming radiation from the star, the sub-Neptunes should indeed have sizes missing from the observed distribution.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 9, 2024

Each year, hordes of them surge from the ocean into Canada’s rivers and streams, swimming back to their birthplaces to spawn.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 30, 2023

More than a century after the momentous events of 1901, the narrator enjoys visiting Mingherian patriots’ birthplaces that have since been turned into museums.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2022

Does the history of technology depend on nothing more than accidents of the birthplaces of a few inventors?

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond