Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A right, possession, or privilege that is one's due by birth. See Synonyms at right.
- n. A special privilege accorded a firstborn.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Any right or privilege to which a person is entitled by birth, such as an estate descendible by law to an heir, or civil liberty under a free constitution; specifically, the right of primogeniture.
Wiktionary
- n. something owed since birth, due to inheritance.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Any right, privilege, or possession to which a person is entitled by birth, such as an estate descendible by law to an heir, or civil liberty under a free constitution; esp. the rights or inheritance of the first born.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a right or privilege that you are entitled to at birth
- n. an inheritance coming by right of birth (especially by primogeniture)
- n. personal characteristics that are inherited at birth
Examples
“DEAL: Well, the United States is in a small minority of countries in the world that continue to grant what we call birthright citizenship, and that is, to grant citizenship to a child regardless of the legal status of the parents.”
“There were valid arguments on both sides, but generally the race-blind believers in birthright made a better case: that ten of the thirteen original states allowed free black men to vote; that Americans of African descent had been recognized as citizens by the federal government in various ways (even Andrew Jackson had hailed his free black soldiers as "fellow citizens" after the Battle of New Orleans).”
The Huffington Post: Van Gosse: Birthright Citizenship Is Bedrock Americanism
“Perhaps they will need more than some mere railings outside No. 10 to resist the righteous anger of the British people whose birthright is so casually being stolen.”
“Our birthright is the propensity to dream, dance, and evolve.”
“With the calls of moderate Republican senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain to change the law to end what is known as "birthright citizenship," the issue is no longer relegated to the fringe.”
“Arwen herself makes the decision to remain in Middle Earth (which makes her a less passive character than in the book), and the consequence of giving up her birthright is that she will die if Aragorn and his allies do not save their world from Sauron’s rule.”
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Lessons from Lord of the Rings, Part 2
“Restore to them their stolen childhoods, their birthright, which is a taste of heaven.”
“Their birthright is the right to be tried in a court of law by an independent judiciary when accused of a crime.”
“This has nothing to do with our American birthright, which is government by the consent of the governed.”
Printing: Exclusive Interview with Democracy Warrior, Nancy Tobi
“Stipulating that health care is a birthright is a value.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘birthright’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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RELI - words you immediately associat...
baptism, almighty, Balaam, altar, anoint, archangel, apostle, advent, writings, wonders, timbrel, thorns and 341 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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That's right, another list
muck-a-muck, ipse dixit, solipsism, anticlinal, analogical, amoral, alogical, synclinal, disinclined, iconological, studly, flitch and 179 more...
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Un zorro en Buenos Aires
virtual tour, frenetic, untable, chile, callao, gripe porcina, bonaerense, moflete, academy of st. ma..., sir neville marriner, brahms's first sy..., astor piazzola and 95 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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Animal Communication
Words from the world of intuitive interspecies communication.
animal communication, sixth sense, third eye, all ears, euthanasia, wannabe, pet, abattoir, help, lumensilta, quantum hologram, telepathy and 58 more...
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sed libera nos a malo
One of the last vestiges of my Catholic upbringing is my interest in and love for language that pertains to it.
psalm, breviary, ecclesiastical, absolve, stigmata, catechumen, hymn, chorister, plainsong, litany, benediction, cloistered and 59 more...
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compound words
My favourites.
birdbath, gallowglass, lamplight, chokecherry, lightbox, riptide, softshoe, snowshed, bluebird, matchbox, sugarcane, nightcap and 64 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for birthright.
sionnach See mess of pottage Sep 27, 2009