Rebirth

How to spell rebirth

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rebirth

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rebirth mean?

1. nounA revival or fresh start, as if something had been born again.

Rebirth in a sentence

• The festival marked the rebirth of interest in local crafts.

• New investment brought about the rebirth of the old harbour district.

Where does rebirth come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound, formed by attaching the prefix re-, from Latin meaning 'again' or 'back', to the native English noun 'birth'. The word 'birth' itself comes through Middle English from an Old Norse source, byrth, related to the Old English beran 'to bear, to carry, to bring forth', which is also the ancestor of 'bear' and 'born'. The combination first appears in English around the 1500s, initially in a literal sense of being born once more and quickly in figurative and religious senses of spiritual renewal. Because both halves of the word are familiar everyday pieces, the spelling holds few surprises; the one thing to watch is keeping the single 'r' of 're-' joined directly to 'birth' with no hyphen and no doubled letter. It runs in parallel with the borrowed word 'renaissance', which is simply French for the same idea of a rebirth.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• birth (the act of being born)