Birth

How to spell birth

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce birth

What does birth mean?

1. nounThe act of being born, or the occasion on which a person or animal comes into the world.
2. nounThe start or origin of something, such as a movement, idea, or institution.

Birth in a sentence

• The hospital recorded the time of birth on her certificate.

• The lecture traced the birth of the labour movement in the city.

• He weighed eight pounds at birth.

• That meeting marked the birth of the whole project.

Where does birth come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The word comes from Old Norse byrðr, meaning the act of bearing or bringing forth, and it entered English in the medieval period, gradually replacing the older Old English word gebyrd. At its heart sits the very old verb 'to bear', in the sense of carrying a child and delivering it into the world, so a birth is literally the event of being borne forth. The closing -th is the same noun-forming suffix that turns 'warm' into 'warmth' and 'grow' into 'growth', here turning the idea of bearing into a thing that happens. Over time the meaning broadened from the literal delivery of a baby to the figurative beginning or origin of anything, as in the birth of an idea. The spelling is worth pausing over because birth has an exact-sounding twin, 'berth' (a bunk or a docking place for a ship), which comes from an entirely different nautical source, so the i in birth quietly marks its link to 'bear' and being born.

How the word is built

• bir- (from Old Norse byrðr, related to 'bear': to carry, bring forth)
• -th (suffix forming an abstract noun)