Dictionary Definition
birth
Noun
1 the time when something begins (especially
life); "they divorced after the birth of the child"; "his election
signaled the birth of a new age" [ant: death]
2 the event of being born; "they celebrated the
birth of their first child" [syn: nativity, nascency, nascence] [ant: death]
4 the kinship relation of an offspring to the
parents [syn: parentage] v : give birth (to
a newborn); "My wife had twins yesterday!" [syn: give birth,
deliver, bear, have]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From stern (replacing gebyrd)Noun
- The process of childbearing.
- An instance of childbirth.
- A beginning or start; a point of origin.
- The circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing: of noble birth.
Translations
process of childbearing
- Arabic: (wilāda) , (máwlid), (mīlad)
- Breton: ganedigezh , -ioù p
- Bulgarian: раждане
- Chinese: 出生 (chūshēng)
- Czech: narození , porod
- Dutch: geboorte
- Finnish: synnyttäminen, lisääntyminen
- French: naissance
- German: Geburt
- Greek: γέννα (yenna) , τοκετός (toketos)
- Hebrew: לידה (leida)
- Hindi: जन्म
- Icelandic: fæðing , hingaðburður
- Italian: nascita , parto
- Japanese: 出産 (しゅっさん, shussan)
- Kurdish:
- Malayalam: ജനനം (jananam)
- Romanian: naştere
- Slovene: rojstvo , porod
- Spanish: nacimiento
- Swedish: födelse
- Vietnamese: (sự) sinh đẻ
beginning or start; a point of origin
- Arabic: (wilāda) ,
- Breton: ganedigezh , -ioù p
- Bulgarian: начало
- Chinese: 誕生 (dànshēng)
- Czech: zrod
- Finnish: alku, syntymä
- German: Geburt
- Greek: γέννηση (yennisi)
- Italian: nascita
- Japanese: 誕生 (たんじょう, tanjō)
- Kurdish: ,
- Romanian: origine , început
- Slovene: rojstvo
- Swedish: början
- Vietnamese: đầu, sự ra đời
circumstances of one's background
Related terms
- accident of birth
- bear
- birth control
- birthdate
- birthday
- birthing
- birth mother
- birth pangs
- birth parent
- birth pill
- birthplace
- birthrate
- birthright
- birthstone
- born
- breech birth
- give birth
- noble birth
- virgin birth
Verb
- To bear children or to give birth.
Usage notes
It is uncommon to hear "she will go to birth her child." But the past tense is used, as "she birthed her child", though rarely. "To give birth" is far more common.Translations
to birth
- Arabic: يولد
- Breton: engehentañ (1), genel radical gan- (2)
- Bulgarian: раждам
- Czech: porodit (=give birth), narodit se (=be born)
- Dutch: baren
- Finnish: synnyttää
- French: accoucher
- Greek: γεννώ (geno)
- Guaraní: eñõi (t-) (1)
- Hebrew: ללדת (la'ledet) (1)
- Ido: akushar
- Interlingua: nascentia (1,2,3)
- Kurdish:
- Portuguese: nascimento (1,2,3)
- Romanian: naştere
- Slovene: roditi
- Swahili: kuzaa
- Swedish: föda (=give birth)
- Telugu: కను, ప్రసవించు (=give birth), పుట్టు, జన్మించు (=be born)
- Tupinambá: 'ara (1), 'araba (3)
Extensive Definition
Birth is the process in animals by which an offspring is physiologically
expelled from the body of its mother. Different forms of birth
are oviparity,
vivipary or ovovivipary.
Two words used to describe human offspring while
in utero
are embryo and fetus. Their meanings refer to
earlier and later stages of development.
Medical meanings
- Childbirth is the process at the end of a human pregnancy that results in a baby being born.
- Natural childbirth is the technique of minimizing medical intervention, particularly anaesthetics, during childbirth.
- Unassisted childbirth (UC) is birth without the aid of medical or professional birth attendants. Also known as Freebirth
- Multiple birth is the birth of two (twins), three (triplets), four (quadruplets), etc., babies resulting from a single pregnancy.
- Birth canal is the term used for the vagina during birth, as it is the route through which the infant passes during a vaginal birth.
- Caesarean section or C-Section is surgical birth through the wall of the abdomen.
- Birth pangs are the pains felt by the mother during labour, resulting from contractions of the uterus and pressure on nerves and organs.
- Lotus Birth is the practice of leaving the umbilical cord uncut after birth so that the baby is left attached to its placenta until the cord naturally separates
- Afterbirth is the delivery of the placenta following the delivery of the infant.
- Birth control methods are devices, medications or behavior patterns to reduce the probability of pregnancy.
Complications
- Infertility treatments are devices, medications, or behavior patterns to increase the probability of pregnancy.
- Premature birth is the birth of an infant before the full term of pregnancy.
- Birth defect is a physical or mental abnormality present at the time of birth.
- Stillbirth is the birth of a dead fetus or infant.
- Birth trauma is a theory in Pre & Perinatal psychology and natural medicine that the baby experiences extreme pain during the birthing process and that this pain influences the child later in life.
- VBAC is a Vaginal Birth after a Caesarean Birth.
Legal meanings
- Birthday is a day to celebrate that the person has lived a certain number of years. It is an annual event based either on the anniversary of a person's date of birth, or on astrological birthtime calculations.
- Birth certificate is a legal document describing details of a person's birth.
- A nuclear family comprising the father, mother, brother or sister, is an institution where the members are related by birth.
- In some countries a person is considered of illegitimate birth if the child is born of parents not legally married to each other.
Spiritual meanings
- Astrology is based upon the belief that an individual's life is influenced by the geocentric positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets in the sky or below the horizon at the moment of birth; a natal chart is calculated using the exact time, date, and place of birth in order to try and interpret these cyclical influences on a person's life.
- Virgin Birth of Jesus is the Christian doctrine that asserts that Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, and thus that His conception was carried out without an earthly father.
- Born again, a term used primarily in Protestant Christianity, is associated with salvation, conversion, and spiritual rebirth.
- Rebirth is a belief that a person is born again after their death based on the karma of their previous births.
Metaphorical meanings
The term birth is used metaphorically to refer to a beginning, especially of a natural phenomenon, one that is impressive in its scope or complexity, or one that is viewed favorably.- Stellar evolution is the field of study that deals with the birth of stars and their lifecycles.
birth in Arabic: ولادة
birth in Official Aramaic (700-300 BCE):
ܝܠܝܕܐ
birth in Danish: Fødsel
birth in German: Geburt
birth in French: Naissance
birth in Korean: 탄생
birth in Icelandic: Fæðing
birth in Italian: Nascita
birth in Japanese: 誕生
birth in Norwegian: Fødsel
birth in Russian: Рождение
birth in Simple English: Birth
birth in Serbian: Рођење
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Altmann theory, DNA, De Vries theory, Galtonian
theory, Mendelianism, Mendelism, RNA, Verworn theory, Weismann
theory, Weismannism,
Wiesner theory, abiogenesis, abortion, accouchement, affiliation, allele, allelomorph, ancestry, animal spirits,
animate existence, animation, apparentation, archigenesis, aristocracy, aristocraticalness,
babyhood, bear, bearing, beget, beginning, beginnings, being alive,
biogenesis, birth
throes, birthing,
blastogenesis,
blessed event, blood,
bloodline, blue blood,
branch, breed, bring to birth, character, childbearing, childbed, childbirth, childhood, chromatid, chromatin, chromosome, commencement, common
ancestry, confinement, consanguinity, cradle, creation, dawn, dawning, delivery, derivation, descent, determinant, determiner, development, diathesis, digenesis, direct line,
distaff side, distinction, emergence, endowment, engender, epigenesis, eugenics, eumerogenesis, existence, extraction, factor, family, father, female line, filiation, freshman year,
gene, generation, genesiology, genesis, genetic code, genetics, genteelness, gentility, give birth to,
giving birth, hatching,
having a baby, having life, hereditability, heredity, heritability, heritage, heterogenesis, histogenesis, homogenesis, honorable
descent, house, immortality, inborn
capacity, inception,
inchoation, incipience, incipiency, incunabula, infancy, inheritability, inheritance, isogenesis, labor, life, lifetime, line, line of descent, lineage, liveliness, living, long life, longevity, male line, matrocliny, merogenesis, metagenesis, miscarriage, monogenesis, mother, multiparity, nascence, nascency, nativity, nobility, noble birth, nobleness, onset, opening, origin, origination, orthogenesis, outset, outstart, pangenesis, parentage, parthenogenesis,
parturition,
patrocliny, pharmacogenetics,
phylum, pregnancy, procreate, procreation, quality, race, rank, recessive character, replication, royalty, seed, sept, side, sire, slip, spear side, spindle side,
spontaneous generation, spriteliness, start, stem, stirps, stock, strain, succession, sword side, the
Nativity, the stork, travail, viability, vitality, vivacity, youth