birth

being such by blood and not by adoption or marriage argued that the birth mother had not been informed of all of her options at the time of the adoption Synonyms biological (also biologic), natural, consanguineousRelated Words legitimateNear Antonyms illegitimateAntonyms adopted, adoptive, nonbiological

1 the act or instance of being born almost from birth, he showed all the marks of future greatness Synonyms geniture, nativity Related Words creation, genesis, nascency, origination, rise; accouchement, bearing, childbearing, labor, parturition; begetting, breeding, fathering, generation, mothering, parenting, reproduction, siring, spawning; fatherhood, maternity, motherhood, parenthood, paternity Near Antonyms abortion, miscarriage; stillbirth

2 the line of ancestors from whom a person is descended a man of noble birth Synonyms ancestry, blood, bloodline, breeding, descent, extraction, family tree, genealogy, line, lineage, origin, parentage, pedigree, stock, strainRelated Words heredity, succession; family, house; kin, kindred, relations, relatives; raceNear Antonyms offspring; child, heir, inheritor, son, successorAntonyms issue, posterity, progeny, seed

3 the point at which something begins that 12-second flight by Orville Wright marked the birth of aviation Synonyms alpha, baseline, beginning, commencement, dawn, day one, genesis, get-go (also git-go), inception, incipience, incipiency, kickoff, launch, morning, nascence, nascency, onset, outset, start, thresholdRelated Words drawing board, first base, ground zero, square one; creation, founding, inauguration, initiation, institution, origination; cradle, fountain, fountainhead, germ, origin, root, seedbed, source, spring, well, wellspring; dawning, opening; advent, appearance, arrival, debut (also début), emergence; childhood, infancy, youthNear Antonyms cessation, closing, closure, completion, finale, finish, period, stop, termination, windupAntonyms close, conclusion, end, ending, omega

to bring forth from the womb back in those days a woman her age would have birthed several children Synonyms bear [chiefly dialect], deliver, drop, have, mother, produceRelated Words labor; breed, multiply, propagate, reproduce, spawn; beget, father, generate, get, sire; calve, kid, kindle, kitten, litter, pup, whelpNear Antonyms abort, lose, miscarry