Adjacent Words

Nativity definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

NATIVITY, n.
1. Birth; the coming into life or the world. The feast of Christmas is observed in memory of Christs nativity.
2. Time, place and manner of birth; as, to calculate ones nativity.
3. State or place of being produced.
These, in their dark nativity, the deep Shall yield us pregnant with infernal flame.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the event of being born; "they celebrated the birth of their first child" [syn: birth, nativity, nascency, nascence] [ant: death, decease, expiry]
2: the theological doctrine that Jesus Christ had no human father; Christians believe that Jesus's birth fulfilled Old Testament prophecies and was attended by miracles; the Nativity is celebrated at Christmas [syn: Virgin Birth, Nativity]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ties) Etymology: Middle English nativite, from Anglo-French nativité, from Medieval Latin nativitat-, nativitas, from Late Latin, birth, from Latin nativus Date: 14th century 1. the process or circumstances of being born ; birth; especially capitalized the birth of Jesus 2. a horoscope at or of the time of one's birth 3. the place of origin

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 (esp. the Nativity) a the birth of Christ. b the festival of Christ's birth; Christmas. 2 a picture of the Nativity. 3 birth. 4 the horoscope at a person's birth. 5 a the birth of the Virgin Mary or St John the Baptist. b the festival of the nativity of the Virgin (8 Sept.) or St John (24 June). Phrases and idioms: nativity play a play usu. performed by children at Christmas dealing with the birth of Christ. Etymology: ME f. OF nativité f. LL nativitas -tatis f. L (as NATIVE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Nativity Na*tiv"i*ty, n.; pl. Nativies. [F. nativit['e], L. nativitas. See Native, and cf. Na["i]vet['E].] 1. The coming into life or into the world; birth; also, the circumstances attending birth, as time, place, manner, etc. --Chaucer. I have served him from the hour of my nativity. --Shak. Thou hast left . . . the land of thy nativity. --Ruth ii. 11. These in their dark nativity the deep Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame. --Milton. 2. (Fine Arts) A picture representing or symbolizing the early infancy of Christ. The simplest form is the babe in a rude cradle, and the heads of an ox and an ass to express the stable in which he was born. 3. (Astrol.) A representation of the positions of the heavenly bodies as the moment of one's birth, supposed to indicate his future destinies; a horoscope. The Nativity, the birth or birthday of Christ; Christmas day. To cast, or calculate, one's nativity (Astrol.), to find out and represent the position of the heavenly bodies at the time of one's birth.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

The Nativity is the birth of Jesus, which is celebrated by Christians at Christmas. They admired the tableau of the Nativity. ...the Nativity story. N-SING: the N

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Birth.

Moby Thesaurus

aboriginality, accouchement, aspect, astrodiagnosis, astrology, astromancy, autochthonousness, babyhood, beginnings, birth, birth throes, birthing, blessed event, childbearing, childbed, childbirth, childhood, confinement, cradle, delivery, freshman year, genesis, genethliac astrology, genethliacism, genethliacs, genethlialogy, giving birth, hatching, having a baby, horoscope, horoscopy, house, inception, inchoation, incipience, incipiency, incunabula, indigenousness, infancy, labor, mansion, multiparity, mundane astrology, mundane house, nascence, nascency, nationality, native-bornness, nativeness, nativism, natural astrology, origin, origination, parturition, planetary house, pregnancy, stargazing, the Nativity, the stork, travail, youth, zodiac