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nativity

noun

Simple meaning

The festival celebrating the birth of Jesus, Christmas Day.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

nuhtivuhtee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

nəˈtɪvəti

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. 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

  2. christianityalso with capital initial

    The festival celebrating the birth of Jesus, Christmas Day; the festival celebrating the birth of the Virgin Mary or the birth of Saint John the Baptist.

  3. christianity

    The birth of Jesus as described in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

  4. also with capital initial

    A set of figurines used to create a nativity scene.

  5. Place of origin; place to which a species is native.

  6. The quality of being native or innate.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: 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

Used this way, nativity is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Religion/spirituality
  • Historical writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

nativity scenenativity playnativity odenativity storyafrican nativityholy nativityblack nativity

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Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: theological doctrine that Jesus Christ had no human father

virgin birth

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.