nativity Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the event of being born
    nascency; nascence; birth.
    • they celebrated the birth of their first child
  2. noun 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
    Virgin Birth.

WordNet

Na*tiv"i*ty noun
Etymology
F. nativité, L. nativitas. See Native, and cf. NaïvetÉ.
Wordforms
plural Nativies
Definitions
  1. The coming into life or into the world; birth; also, the circumstances attending birth, as time, place, manner, etc. Chaucer.
    I have served him from the hour of my nativity. Shak.
    Thou hast left ... the land of thy nativity. Ruth ii. 11.
    These in their dark nativity the deep Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame. Milton.
  2. (Fine Arts) A picture representing or symbolizing the early infancy of Christ. The simplest form is the babe in a rude cradle, and the heads of an ox and an ass to express the stable in which he was born.
  3. (Astrol.) A representation of the positions of the heavenly bodies as the moment of one's birth, supposed to indicate his future destinies; a horoscope.

Webster 1913