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PlainSpell

birthday

/ˈbɝθˌdeɪ/noun, verb

birthday is spelled B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 58 times per million words in written English, the 1,793rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, birthday means “The anniversary of the day on which someone is born” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of birthday is birthdays.

How many letters and syllables are in birthday?

Letters8: B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing58 times per million words; the 1,793rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is birthday?

Birthday appears 58 times per million words in written English, the 1,793rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce birthday?

  • UK /ˈbɜːθ.deɪ/
  • UK /ˈbɜːθ.dei/
  • US /ˈbɝθˌdeɪ/

Birthday has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-birthday.ogg, En-us-birthday.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with birthday?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as birthday from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹθdeɪ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of birthday

  • birthdays plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • birfday
  • birthdaying participle, present
  • birthdayed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does birthday mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The anniversary of the day on which someone is born.

    When's your birthday? Mine's on April 1.

  2. 2

    The anniversary of the day on which something is created.

  3. 3

    The date on which someone is born or something is created, more commonly called birthdate or date of birth.

  4. 4

    A birthday party.

    I'd like to invite you all to my birthday.

verb

  1. 1

    informalTo celebrate one's birthday.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate birthday?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of birthday: BD, bday.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Birthday in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchanniversaire, fête (anniversary), date de naissance (date of birth – see also date of birth)
GermanGeburtstag (anniversary), Geburtsdatum (date of birth – see also date of birth)
Portugueseaniversário, dia de anos (anniversary), data de nascimento (date of birth – see also date of birth)
Spanishcumpleaños, natalicio (anniversary), fecha de nacimiento (date of birth – see also date of birth)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does birthday come from?

From Middle English birthdai, birtheday, from Old English ġebyrddæġ (“birthday”), influenced by Old Norse burðr, equivalent to birth + day. Compare Saterland Frisian Gebuursdai (“birthday”), Dutch geboortedag (“birthday”), Low German Geboortsdag (“birthday”), German Geburtstag (“birthday”), Norwegian bursdag, gebursdag (“birthday”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English nativitee (“birth, nativity, birthday”), from Old French nativité, nativited, from Latin nātīvitas.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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