BIRTHRIGHT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does birthright mean? 

• BIRTHRIGHT (noun)
  The noun BIRTHRIGHT has 3 senses:

1. a right or privilege that you are entitled to at birth

2. an inheritance coming by right of birth (especially by primogeniture)

3. personal characteristics that are inherited at birth

  Familiarity information: BIRTHRIGHT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BIRTHRIGHT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A right or privilege that you are entitled to at birth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

free public education is the birthright of every American child

Hypernyms ("birthright" is a kind of...):

heritage; inheritance (any attribute or immaterial possession that is inherited from ancestors)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An inheritance coming by right of birth (especially by primogeniture)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

birthright; patrimony

Hypernyms ("birthright" is a kind of...):

heritage; inheritance (that which is inherited; a title or property or estate that passes by law to the heir on the death of the owner)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Personal characteristics that are inherited at birth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("birthright" is a kind of...):

heritage; inheritance (any attribute or immaterial possession that is inherited from ancestors)

 Context examples 

Now they flew to their arms as to their birthright.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Something handed down from the past, such as a tradition, birthright, or inherited traits.

(Heritage, NCI Dictionary)

A few slight indications of a rather petted and capricious manner, which I observed in the Beauty, were manifestly considered, by Traddles and his wife, as her birthright and natural endowment.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Birthright and habit must settle the business.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The villein took the cruel blow without wince or cry, as one to whom stripes are a birthright and an inheritance.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)