Learn English – “Birthday” vs. “anniversary”

differencesmeaningnounsword-usage

Are there general guidelines for using "anniversary" vs. "birthday"?

E.g., birthdays are generally for… well, birthdays. It's also used for some notable historical dates regarding countries ("Our nation's birthday") and cities.

Is there a meaningful, generally-accepted differentiation?

Best Answer

Birthday:

  • using the stricter definition, a birthday is the anniversary of one's birth.

Anniversary:

  • is a word used to commemorate special occasions, like weddings, or first dates ( important job promotions for instance) or important purchases ( a house) and things like that. Interestingly enough, even though we don't usually refer to birth dates as "anniversaries" ( unless we are referring to famous people) we do use the word when referring to death dates.

    • The 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Benjamin Britten.

    • Taoiseach commemorates 90th anniversary of Michael Collins’ death

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