birch

1. 1.

   hard close-grained wood of any of various birch trees; used especially in furniture and interior finishes and plywood

   Broaderwood
2. 2.

   any betulaceous tree or shrub of the genus Betula having a thin peeling bark

   Synonymsbirch tree

   Broadertree

   Narroweryellow birchAmerican white birchgrey birchsilver birchdowny birchblack birchsweet birchYukon white birchswamp birchNewfoundland dwarf birch

   Part ofBetula
3. 3.

   a switch consisting of a twig or a bundle of twigs from a birch tree; used to hit people as punishment

   “my father never spared the birch”

   Synonymsbirch rod

   Broaderswitch

1. 1.

   whip with a birch twig

   Broaderflog

1. 1.

   consisting of or made of wood of the birch tree

   Synonymsbirchenbirken

   Similarwoody

Other forms of birch

plural

birches·

past tense

birched·

present participle

birching·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about birch

What does birch mean?

birch means "hard close-grained wood of any of various birch trees; used especially in furniture and interior finishes and plywood". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in birch?

birch has 1 syllable: birch. In IPA it is /ˈbɝtʃ/.

What is another word for birch?

Close synonyms include birch tree, birch rod, birchen, birken. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is birch a common word?

birch is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.