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Byrd 1, William c. 1540-1623.
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English composer noted for his Masses, motets, and keyboard works.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Byrd 2, William 1674-1744.
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American planter and colonial official whose diaries (written in shorthand) provide a rare and humorous account of daily life in pre-Revolutionary Virginia.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Byrd (bûrd), Richard Evelyn 1888-1957.
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American naval officer and explorer. He became famous in 1926 for his claim (now discredited) of having flown over the North Pole. In the first of his several Antarctic expeditions, he became the first person to fly over the South Pole (1929) and established a base for scientific discovery at Little America.
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Richard Byrd

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.