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First vs Birth - What's the difference?

first | birth |

As nouns the difference between first and birth

is that first is ridge (of roof) while birth is (uncountable) the process of childbearing; the beginning of life.

As an adjective birth is

a familial relationship established by childbirth.

As a verb birth is

(dated|or|regional) to bear or give birth to (a child).

first

English

(wikipedia first)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) (m), .

Alternative forms

* firste (archaic) * fyrst (obsolete) * fyrste (obsolete)

Adjective

(-)
  • Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).}}
  • Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
  • * 1784 : William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , PREFACE
    • THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
    Alternative forms
    * ; (in names of monarchs and popes) I

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Before anything else; firstly.
  • * , chapter=8
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia.}}

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The person or thing in the first position.
  • * 1699 , , Heads designed for an essay on conversations
    • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
  • (uncountable) The first gear of an engine.
  • (countable) Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.
  • (countable, baseball) first base
  • (countable, British, colloquial) A first-class honours degree.
  • (countable, colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.
  • A fraction of an integer ending in one.

    • Derived terms

    * feet first * firstborn * first-class * first gear * first imperative (Latin grammar) * first of all * first place * first things first * first up

    See also

    * primary

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) (m), (m), . See also (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Time; time granted; respite.

    • Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * * 100 English basic words English locatives English sequence adverbs English ordinal numbers 1000 English basic words

    birth

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The process of childbearing; the beginning of life.
  • (countable) An instance of childbirth.
    • Intersex babies account for roughly one per cent of all births .
  • (countable) A beginning or start; a point of origin.
    • the birth of an empire
  • (uncountable) The circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing.
    • He was of noble birth , but fortune had not favored him.
  • * Prescott
    • elected without reference to birth , but solely for qualifications
  • That which is born.
  • * Ben Jonson
    • Poets are far rarer births than kings.
  • * Addison
    • Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself.

    • Antonyms

    * (beginning of life) death

    References

    Adjective

    (-)
  • A familial relationship established by childbirth.
    • Her birth father left when she was a baby; she was raised by her mother and stepfather.

    Synonyms

    * biological, blood, consanguineous

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (dated, or, regional) To bear or give birth to (a child).
  • * 1939 ,
    • "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!"
  • (figuratively) To produce, give rise to.
  • * 2006 , R. Bruce Hull, Infinite Nature , University of Chicago Press, ISBN 9780226359441, page 156:
    • Biological evolution created a human mind that enabled cultural evolution, which now outpaces and outclasses the force that birthed it.

    Usage notes

    * The term is much more common, especially in literal use.

    Related terms

    * bear * born

    Derived terms

    * accident of birth * birth control * birthdate * birthday * birthing * birth mother * birth pangs * birth parent * birth pill * birthplace * birthrate * birthright * birthstone * birth tourism * breech birth * give birth * noble birth * virgin birth 1000 English basic words ----