What does birth mean?

Definitions for birth
bɜrθbirth

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word birth.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. birthnoun

    the time when something begins (especially life)

    "they divorced after the birth of the child"; "his election signaled the birth of a new age"

  2. birth, nativity, nascency, nascencenoun

    the event of being born

    "they celebrated the birth of their first child"

  3. parturition, birth, giving birth, birthingnoun

    the process of giving birth

  4. parentage, birthnoun

    the kinship relation of an offspring to the parents

  5. birthverb

    a baby born; an offspring

    "the overall rate of incidence of Down's syndrome is one in every 800 births"

  6. give birth, deliver, bear, birth, haveverb

    cause to be born

    "My wife had twins yesterday!"

Wiktionary

  1. birthnoun

    The process of childbearing.

  2. birthnoun

    An instance of childbirth.

  3. birthnoun

    A beginning or start; a point of origin.

  4. birthnoun

    The circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing.

    He was of noble birth, but fortune had not favored him.

  5. birthverb

    To bear or give birth to (a child).

  6. birthverb

    To produce, give rise to.

  7. birthadjective

    A familial relationship established by childbirth.

    Her birth father left when she was a baby; she was raised by her mother and stepfather.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. BIRTHnoun

    Etymology: beorþ, Sax.

    But thou art fair, and, at thy birth, dear boy,
    Nature and fortune join’d to make thee great. William Shakespeare, K. J.

    In Spain, our springs like old mens children be,
    Decay’d and wither’d from their infancy;
    No kindly showers fall on our barren earth,
    To hatch the seasons in a timely birth. Dryden.

    Most virtuous virgin, born of heav’nly birth. Fairy Q.

    All truth I shall relate: nor first can I
    Myself to be of Grecian birth deny. John Denham.

    He doth object, I am too great of birth. William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor.

    Be just in all you say, and all you do;
    Whatever be your birth, you’re sure to be
    A peer of the first magnitude to me. John Dryden, Juvenal.

    High in his chariot then Halesus came,
    A foe by birth to Troy’s unhappy name. John Dryden, Virgil.

    The people fear me; for they do observe
    Unfather’d heirs and loathly births of nature. William Shakespeare, H. IV.

    That poets are far rarer births than kings,
    Your noblest father prov’d. Ben Jonson, Epigrams.

    Who of themselves
    Abhor to join: and, by imprudence mix’d,
    Produce prodigious births, of body, or mind. John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. xi. l. 687.

    She, for this many thousand years,
    Seems to have practis’d with much care,
    To frame the race of woman fair;
    Yet never could a perfect birth
    Produce before, to grace the earth. Edmund Waller.

    His eldest birth
    Flies, mark’d by heav’n, a fugitive o’er earth. Matthew Prior.

    The vallies smile, and, with their flow’ry face,
    And wealthy births, confess the flood’s embrace. Richard Blackmore.

    Others hatch their eggs, and tend the birth, till it is able to shift for itself. Joseph Addison, Spectator, №. 120.

    That fair Syrian shepherdess,
    Who after years of barrenness,
    The highly favour’d Joseph bore
    To him that serv’d for her before;
    And at her next birth, much like thee,
    Through pangs fled to felicity. John Milton.

Wikipedia

  1. Birth

    Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the fetus at a developmental stage when it is ready to feed and breathe. In some species the offspring is precocial and can move around almost immediately after birth but in others it is altricial and completely dependent on parenting. In marsupials, the fetus is born at a very immature stage after a short gestation and develops further in its mother's womb pouch. It is not only mammals that give birth. Some reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates carry their developing young inside them. Some of these are ovoviviparous, with the eggs being hatched inside the mother's body, and others are viviparous, with the embryo developing inside her body, as in the case of mammals.

ChatGPT

  1. birth

    Birth refers to the natural process or act of giving life to a child or offspring, typically from a female parent or organism. It marks the start of an individual's life in the external world, separate from their mother's womb, and is a significant biological and social event in most cultures. Birth can also pertain to the beginning or emergence of something, such as an idea, movement, or epoch.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Birthnoun

    the act or fact of coming into life, or of being born; -- generally applied to human beings; as, the birth of a son

  2. Birthnoun

    lineage; extraction; descent; sometimes, high birth; noble extraction

  3. Birthnoun

    the condition to which a person is born; natural state or position; inherited disposition or tendency

  4. Birthnoun

    the act of bringing forth; as, she had two children at a birth

  5. Birthnoun

    that which is born; that which is produced, whether animal or vegetable

  6. Birthnoun

    origin; beginning; as, the birth of an empire

  7. Birthnoun

    see Berth

Wikidata

  1. Birth

    Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring from the uterus. The offspring is brought forth from the mother. The time of human birth is defined as the time at which the fetus comes out of the mother's womb into the world. Different forms of birth are oviparity, vivipary and ovovivipary.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Birth

    bėrth, n. a ship's station at anchor. [Same as Berth.]

  2. Birth

    bėrth, n. the act of bearing or bringing forth: the offspring born: dignity of family: origin.—n. Birth′day, the day on which one is born, or the anniversary of that day.—adj. relating to the day of one's birth.—ns. Birth′day-book, a book in diary form, in which the birthdays of one's friends are entered in their autographs; Birth′dom (Shak.), birthright; Birth′-mark, a peculiar mark on one's body at birth; Birth′night, the night on which one is born, or the anniversary of that night; Birth′place, the place of one's birth; Birth′right, the right or privilege to which one is entitled by birth: native rights.—adj. Birth′-strang′led (Shak.), strangled in birth.—n. Birth′-wort, a genus of perennial plants, formerly used medicinally in cases of difficult parturition. [M. E. birÞe, prob. Scand.; cf. Goth, ga-baurÞs, Ger. ge-burt.]

Editors Contribution

  1. birth

    The act of being born.

    The cow gave birth to her calf and it was such a joyous sight.


    Submitted by MaryC on February 3, 2020  


  2. birth

    The natural movement of a baby through the birth canal, cervix and then out of the vagina of their mother.

    The birth of the baby is a miracle they both agree.


    Submitted by MaryC on January 25, 2020  

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. BIRTH

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Birth is ranked #48628 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Birth surname appeared 434 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Birth.

    69.5% or 302 total occurrences were White.
    25.1% or 109 total occurrences were Black.
    3.2% or 14 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'birth' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #1982

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'birth' in Written Corpus Frequency: #3005

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'birth' in Nouns Frequency: #780

How to pronounce birth?

How to say birth in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of birth in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of birth in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of birth in a Sentence

  1. George Santayana:

    There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval

  2. Taro Kono:

    Even if you magically increased the birth rate by tomorrow, still it would take these babies 20 years to grow, so we really need to do something about the labor market, people talk about getting more women (and) ... more senior people to stay in the labor market. We obviously have to do both, and that still will not be enough.

  3. Jerry Brown:

    Today we require tax returns, but what would be next ? five years of health records ? A certified birth certificate ? High school report cards ? And will these requirements vary depending on which political party is in power ?

  4. Patricia Arquette:

    To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen in this nation: We have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality in the U.S..

  5. Kim Clijsters:

    We were all looking forward to this match and excited to see what the outcome would be, pregnancy and birth is physically very demanding and you deal with new injuries that you are not used to. In the first part of my career I'd have recurring injuries and then after I had( daughter) Jada I had new injuries.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

birth#1#2223#10000

Translations for birth

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"birth." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/birth>.

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