Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

birb

/bɜɹb/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.84 in modern English

Syllables: birb
IPA: /bɜɹb/

8

Scrabble Score

4

Letters

1

Syllables

3

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A bird, especially a small and cute one.

Humorous

Example Sentences

"Near-synonyms: birdie, birdlet, birdling"
"The here-then-gone-then-here-again appearance of the #birb (as Twitter loves to lovingly refer to pretty, pretty birdies) plus the internet’s instant oatmeal obsession with him inspired WIRED’s Paris Martineau to propose a different nickname for the fowl: duckboi"
"Violent or unseemly behavior doesn’t disqualify a bird from birbness: the aggression of hummingbirds […] and brain-eating of Great Tits are immaterial to their round fluffiness. You could post a picture of any of these on reddit under "murder birb" and nobody would blink."

Etymology

Alteration of bird. Possibly coined by Katie Gouldin on the humorous Twitter account @ProBirdRights in a 2012 tweet, although it did not become widely used until 2014.

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /bɜɹb/
British English: /bɜːb/

Usage

Humorous

Inflected Forms

birbs (plural)

Synonyms

birdie birdlet birdling

Rhymes With

superb curb herb verb disturb serb reverb blurb kerb refurb perturb gerb

Questions

How do you pronounce birb?: The recorded pronunciation is /bɜɹb/.
What does birb mean?: A bird, especially a small and cute one.
Where does birb come from?: Alteration of bird. Possibly coined by Katie Gouldin on the humorous Twitter account @ProBirdRights in a 2012 tweet, although it did not become widely used until 2014.

How to pronounce birb

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “birb”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/bɜɹb/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “birb”.
Repeat and practice — Say “birb” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.