One syllable: births.
/ˈbɝθs/
Say it backBirths is the plural noun for the event of a baby being born. In everyday use it refers to multiple births or the act/process of giving birth in a population or statistic. It’s pronounced with a single-stressed initial syllable and a final /s/ plural, typically quick and light in connected speech.
"The births in the city have declined this year."
"Researchers tracked births and mortality to study demographic trends."
"The hospital reported 60 births yesterday."
Say /bɜːθs/ (UK/AU) or /bɜ˞θs/ or /bɝθs/ (US). Start with a bilabial /b/, then a mid-central to low-mid vowel with r-coloring depending on accent, followed by the voiceless interdental fricative /θ/, and finish with the voiceless /s/. Ensure the /θ/ is unvoiced and the tongue lightly touches the upper teeth. Stress is on the single syllable.
Common errors: substituting /s/ for /θ/ as /bɜːərs/ or /bɜːrs/; omitting the final /s/ (sounding like /bɜːθ/); adding an extra /r/ or making the /r/ sound even in non-rhotic accents. Correct by keeping the interdental /θ/ short and voiceless, keeping the final /s/ separate and not blending into /θs/ into a single sound; practice by isolating the /θ/ and the /s/ and then blending.
In US English you’ll hear /bɜrθs/ with a pronounced rhotic /r/ before the /θ/ and a clear final /s/. In UK/AU non-rhotic varieties, you’ll often hear /bɜːθs/ with a reduced or non-pronounced /r/ and a lengthened /ɜː/. The main difference is rhoticity and vowel length; the interdental /θ/ remains consistent, but preceding vowel length and r-coloring shift with accent.
Because it combines a voiced bilabial onset (/b/) with a mid-to-low vowel that may be rhoticized in American variants, followed by a voiceless interdental fricative /θ/ which is hard for speakers not familiar with interdental consonants, and ending in /s/. The /θ/ requires precise tongue placement between teeth, not touching the tongue to the teeth strongly; it can be substituted with /f/ or /t/ in error.
A unique feature is maintaining a sharp, clear interdental /θ/ before a final /s/ without voice blending. It often flattens in rapid speech to something like /θs/ with the vowel preceding shortened. Pay attention to the timing: the /θ/ should be released promptly, and the final /s/ should be crisp and not smoothed into a voiceless /z/.
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Births derives from Old English begyrd?unclear; standard etymology traces to the noun birth, from Proto-Germanic *burþiz or *berþiz, with the sense of being born. The modern plural, births, developed from the Middle English plural formations where -s was suffixed to nouns to indicate multiple instances or events. The semantic focus shifted from the state of being born for a person to the countable events of birth as a demographic or sociological statistic. First known uses appear in medieval records dealing with family and estate taxation, where births and christenings were tracked for lineage and inheritance. Over time, ‘births’ came to refer specifically to the act of giving birth in medical and demographic discourse, not just the moment of birth itself. In contemporary English, births is a frequent term in statistics, population studies, public health, and hospital reporting, often paired with deaths and marriages to describe vital events in a population. Evolution reflects a shift from a singular biological phenomenon to a plural, countable set of events across time and geography.
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Words that rhyme with "births"
-ths sounds
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