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birch.

Any of various trees of the genus Betula, native to countries in the Northern Hemisphere.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/bɜːtʃ/Received-Pronunciation/bɝt͡ʃ/US
  1. Any of various trees of the genus Betula, native to countries in the Northern Hemisphere.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A hard wood taken from the birch tree, typically used to make furniture.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A stick, rod or bundle of twigs made from birch wood, used for punishment.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A birch-bark canoe.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

PIE word *bʰerHǵós From Middle English birche, birk, from Old English birċe, bierċe, from Proto-West Germanic *birkijā, from Proto-Germanic *birkijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵos. Cognates Compare West Frisian bjirk, German Birke, variant of *berkō (compare Dutch berk, Danish birk, Swedish björk, Norwegian bjørk), Sanskrit भूर्ज (bhūrjá), Lithuanian béržas, Czech bříza, Ossetian бӕрз (bærz), Russian берёза (berjóza)), Latin fraxinus (“ash tree, ash javelin”), Albanian bredh.

verb/bɜːtʃ/Received-Pronunciation/bɝt͡ʃ/US
  1. To punish with a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.

    transitive
  2. To punish as though one were using a stick, bundle of twigs, or rod made of birch wood.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

PIE word *bʰerHǵós From Middle English birche, birk, from Old English birċe, bierċe, from Proto-West Germanic *birkijā, from Proto-Germanic *birkijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵos. Cognates Compare West Frisian bjirk, German Birke, variant of *berkō (compare Dutch berk, Danish birk, Swedish björk, Norwegian bjørk), Sanskrit भूर्ज (bhūrjá), Lithuanian béržas, Czech bříza, Ossetian бӕрз (bærz), Russian берёза (berjóza)), Latin fraxinus (“ash tree, ash javelin”), Albanian bredh.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.