eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for birch

4 headwords match “birch”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The 4 strongest follow; bierce ranks first.

  1. 1

    bierce

    score 24

    noun, feminine · weak n-stem · 4 inflected forms

    birch — birch

    • opens the headword's definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular bierċe
    genitive singular bierċan
    dative singular bierċan
    accusative singular bierċan
    nominative plural bierċan
    genitive plural bierċena
  2. 2

    beorc

    score 11

    noun, feminine · strong ō-stem · 4 inflected forms

    birch — a birch tree.

    • appears in the definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular beorc
    genitive singular beorce
    dative singular beorce
    accusative singular beorce
    nominative plural beorca, beorce
    genitive plural beorca
  3. 3

    bircen

    score 9

    adjective · 20 inflected forms

    birch — birchen; made of birch

    • appears in the definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    strong nominative singular masculine birċen
    strong nominative singular feminine birċenu, bircnu, birċeno, bircno
    strong nominative singular neuter birċen
    strong accusative singular masculine birċenne
    strong accusative singular feminine birċene, bircne
    strong accusative singular neuter birċen
  4. 4

    score 4

    letter

    birch — the eighteenth letter of the Old English runic alphabet, representing the sound /b/ and pr

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “birch” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “birch”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0