• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /bɜːθ/, verb also: IPA^(key): /bɜːð/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) enPR: bûrth, IPA^(key): /bɜɹθ/, verb also: IPA^(key): /bɝð/

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /bɪɹθ/, verb also: IPA^(key): /bɪɹð/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /bøːθ/, verb also: IPA^(key): /bøːð/
• (Liverpool, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /beːθ/, verb also: IPA^(key): /beːð/
• (Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /bɛːθ/, verb also: IPA^(key): /bɛːð/
• Homophone: berth (fern–fir–fur merger)
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)θ

From Middle English birthe (1250), from earlier burthe, burde,^[1] from Old Norse burðr, byrd^[2] (Old Swedish byrth, Swedish börd), replacing Old English ġebyrd (rare variant byrþ),^[3] equivalent to bear +‎ -th (thus a piecewise doublet of berth). The Old Norse is from Proto-Germanic *burdiz (compare Old Frisian berde, berd); Old English ġebyrd is from prefixed *gaburþiz (compare Dutch geboorte, German Geburt), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰŕ̥tis (compare Latin fors (“luck”), Old Irish brith), from *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”). More at bear.

birth (countable and uncountable, plural births)

1. (uncountable) The process of childbearing; the beginning of life; the emergence of a human baby or other viviparous animal offspring from the mother's body into the environment.
2. (countable) An instance of childbirth.

   Intersex babies account for roughly one per cent of all births.

   • 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiii:

     In Greece a child was given its name on the seventh or tenth day after birth.

3. (countable) A beginning or start; a point of origin.

   the birth of an empire

4. (uncountable) The circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing.

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

   • 1843, William H. Prescott, History Of The Conquest Of Mexico And History Of The Conquest Of Peru‎^[1], The Modern Library, page 42:

     without reference to birth, but solely for their qualifications

   • 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage:

     Lucy […] had no fortune, which, though a minor evil, was an evil; and she had no birth, in the high-life sense of the word, which was a greater evil.

5. That which is born.
   • 1692, Ben Jonson, “Epigrams”, in The Works of Ben Jonson‎^[2], page 288:

     That poets are far rarer births than kings.

   • 1761, Joseph Addison, The Works of Joseph Addison‎^[3], volume 3, John Baskerville, page 49:

     Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself.

Birth and childbirth: Childbirth connotes the event as it occurs to the mother, whereas birth connotes it as it occurs to the offspring. For example, "the pain of childbirth" suggests pain the mother feels, while "the pain of birth" suggests pain the baby feels. Either term can be used from an outside perspective (Fathers are more and more frequently present at the birth/at childbirth).

• (antonym(s) of “beginning of life”): death

birth (not comparable)

1. A familial relationship established by childbirth.

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

• biological, blood, consanguineous

From Middle English birthen, birðen, from the noun (see above).

birth (third-person singular simple present births, present participle birthing, simple past and past participle birthed)

1. (transitive) To bear or give birth to (a child).
   • 1939, Sidney Howard, Ben Hecht, Jo Swerling, John Van Druten, Oliver H.P. Garrett, Gone with the Wind (film):

     I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!

   • 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:

     Kelly: Is it true we have a pod containing a baby krogan down in the cargo hold?
     Shepard: Not a baby. He's a full-grown super soldier ready for combat.
     Kelly: Please be careful if you decide to... err... birth him? His personality is completely unknown.

   • 2023 March 5, Jonathan Bouquet, “May I have a word about… being stuck in a permacrisis”, in The Observer‎^[4], →ISSN:

     She cites some recent examples from the papers: “I birthed two babies in rapid succession”; Beyoncé “birthed her twins”; while somewhere else in the same paper a woman proudly proclaimed: “I birthed a calf!”. She ends: “My objection to the American usage is that it seems to stress rather crudely the muscular process of bringing forth a baby, whereas the graceful British English term ‘to give birth to’ is much more dignified!”

2. (transitive, figuratively) To produce, give rise to.
   • 2006, R. Bruce Hull, Infinite Nature‎^[5], University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 156:

     Biological evolution created a human mind that enabled cultural evolution, which now outpaces and outclasses the force that birthed it.

• The term give birth (to) is much more common, especially in literal use.

• bear
• born

See berth.

birth (plural births)

1. Obsolete spelling of berth.
   • 1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton,[…], J[ohn] Graves[…], A[nne] Dodd,[…], and T[homas] Warner,[…], →OCLC, page 186:

     He vvas a Surgeon, and they called him Doctor; but he vvas not employed in the Sloop as a Surgeon, but vvas going to Berbadoes to get a Birth, as the Sailors call it.

   • 1748, [Tobias Smollett], “I am Reduced to Great Misery—Assaulted on Tower-hill by a Press-gang, who Put Me on Board a Tender—My Usage there—My Arrival on Board of the Thunder Man of War,[…]”, in The Adventures of Roderick Random.[…], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn[…], →OCLC, page 226:

     And vvhen he had ſhevvn me their birth (as he called it) I vvas filled vvith aſtoniſhment and horror.—VVe deſcended by divers ladders to a ſpace as dark as a dungeon, vvhich I underſtood vvas immerſed ſeveral feet under vvater, being immediately above the hold: I had no ſooner approached this diſmal gulph, than my noſe vvas ſaluted vvith an intolerable ſtench of putrified cheeſe, and rancid butter, […]

   • a. 1755 (date written), Henry Fielding, The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon,[…], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar,[…], published 1755, →OCLC, page 191:

     Tho' vve vvere again got near our harbour by three in the afternoon, yet it ſeemed to require a full hour or more, before vve could come to our former place of anchoring, or birth, as the captain called it.

   • 1778, [Frances Burney], “Letter XVI. Evelina to the Rev. Mr. Villars.”, in Evelina, or, A Young Lady’s Entrance into the World, volume I, London: […] T[homas] Lowndes,[…], →OCLC, page 103:

     [Y]ou have got a good vvarm birth here; but vve ſhall beat up your quarters. Here, Lucy, Moll, come to the fire, and dry your trumpery.

   • 1809 June 30, Lord Byron, “Letter XXXVI. To Mr. Hodgson.”, in Thomas Moore, editor, Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life,[…], volume I, London: John Murray,[…], published 1830, →OCLC, stanza 3, page 191:

     Passengers their births are clapt in, / Some to grumble, some to spew. / 'Hey day! call you that a cabin? / Why 'tis hardly three feet square; / Not enough to stow Queen Mab in— / Who the deuce can harbour there?'

   • 1816, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in The Antiquary.[…], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages 6–7:

     [W]ith worldly wisdom, the first comer hastens to secure the best birth in the coach for himself, and to make the most convenient arrangement for his baggage before the arrival of his competitor.

   • 1816 February 19, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Mansfield Park:[…], 2nd edition, volume III, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for J[ohn] Murray,[…], →OCLC, page 151:

     "[…] She lays close to the Endymion, between her and the Cleopatra, just to the eastward of the sheer hulk." / "Ha!" cried William, "that's just where I should have put her myself. It's the best birth at Spithead.[…]"

   • 1830, Walter Scott, “Letter X”, in Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft,[…], London: John Murray,[…], →OCLC, page 386:

     The road was very narrow, with no opportunity of giving the apparent phantom what seamen call a wide birth.

From birë (“hole”).

birth m (plural birtha, definite birthi, definite plural birthat)

1. pimple, blemish

• birë

Diminutive -th lengthening of bir (“son”).

birth m (plural birtha, definite birthi, definite plural birthat)

1. son, little boy

• “birth”, in FMGJSH: Fjalor i madh i gjuhës shqipe (in Albanian), 2026

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