Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Birth, especially the place, conditions, or circumstances of being born.
  • noun The birth of Jesus.
  • noun A representation, such as a painting, of Jesus just after birth.
  • noun Christmas.
  • noun A horoscope for the time of one's birth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The fact of being born; birth.
  • noun The circumstances attending birth, as time, place, and surroundings.
  • noun In particular, the birth of Christ; hence
  • noun the festival commemorating the birth of Christ; Christmas;
  • noun a picture representing the birth of Christ: as, the Nativity of Perugino in the hall of the Cam bio at Perugia.
  • noun In feudal times, the condition of servitude or villeinage. See native, n., 2.
  • noun In astrology, a scheme or figure of the heavens, particularly of the twelve houses, at the moment when a person was born; a horoscope.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The coming into life or into the world; birth; also, the circumstances attending birth, as time, place, manner, etc.
  • noun (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.
  • noun (Astrol.) A representation of the positions of the heavenly bodies as the moment of one's birth, supposed to indicate one's future destinies; a horoscope.
  • noun the birth or birthday of Christ; Christmas day.
  • noun (Astrol.) to find out and represent the position of the heavenly bodies at the time of one's birth.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Birth; the place, time and circumstances of a birth.
  • noun religion The birth of Jesus Christ (the Nativity).
  • noun astrology A horoscope associated with a person's birth.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the event of being born
  • noun 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

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English nativite, from Old French, from Latin nātīvitās, from nātīvus, born; see native.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin nativitas, birth

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