From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Begin \Be*gin"\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Began}, {Begun}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Beginning}.] [AS. beginnan (akin to OS. biginnan, D. & G. beginnen, OHG. biginnan, Goth., du-ginnan, Sw. begynna, Dan. begynde); pref. be- + an assumed ginnan. [root]31. See {Gin} to begin.]
1. To have or commence an independent or first existence; to take rise; to commence.
Vast chain of being! which from God began. --Pope.
2. To do the first act or the first part of an action; to enter upon or commence something new, as a new form or state of being, or course of action; to take the first step; to start. ''Tears began to flow.'' --Dryden.
When I begin, I will also make an end. --1 Sam. iii. 12.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
1. The act of doing that which begins anything; commencement of an action, state, or space of time; entrance into being or upon a course; the first act, effort, or state of a succession of acts or states.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. --Gen. i. 1.
2. That which begins or originates something; the first cause; origin; source.
I am . . . the beginning and the ending. --Rev. i. 8.
3. That which is begun; a rudiment or element.
Mighty things from small beginnings grow. --Dryden.
4. Enterprise. ''To hinder our beginnings.'' --Shak.
Syn: Inception; prelude; opening; threshold; origin; outset; foundation.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: serving to begin; "the beginning canto of the poem"; "the first verse" [syn: {beginning(a)}, {first}]
noun
1: the event consisting of the start of something; "the beginning of the war" [ant: {ending}]
2: the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the get-go that he was the man for her" [syn: {commencement}, {first}, {outset}, {get-go}, {start}, {kickoff}, {starting time}, {showtime}, {offset}] [ant: {middle}, {end}]
3: the first part or section of something; "'It was a dark and stormy night' is a hackneyed beginning for a story" [ant: {middle}, {end}]
4: the place where something begins, where it springs into being; "the Italian beginning of the Renaissance"; "Jupiter was the origin of the radiation"; "Pittsburgh is the source of the Ohio River"; "communism's Russian root" [syn: {origin}, {root}, {rootage}, {source}]
5: the act of starting something; "he was responsible for the beginning of negotiations" [syn: {start}, {commencement}] [ant: {finish}]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
130 Moby Thesaurus words for "beginning": abecedarian, aboriginal, alpha, anlage, antenatal, anticipation, appearance, authorship, autochthonous, babyhood, basal, beginnings, birth, budding, childhood, coinage, commencement, conception, concoction, contrivance, contriving, cradle, creation, creative, creative effort, dawn, dawning, day, derivation, devising, earliness, early hour, early stage, elemental, elementary, embryonic, emergence, fabrication, fetal, first crack, first stage, foresight, formative, foundational, freshman year, fundamental, generation, genesis, gestatory, grass roots, ground floor, hatching, head, head start, improvisation, in embryo, in its infancy, in the bud, inaugural, inception, inceptive, inchoate, inchoation, inchoative, incipience, incipiency, incipient, incunabula, incunabular, infancy, infant, infantile, initial, initiative, initiatory, introductory, invention, inventive, making do, mintage, nascence, nascency, nascent, natal, nativity, onset, opening, origin, original, origination, outset, outstart, parturient, parturition, postnatal, pregnancy, pregnant, prenatal, prevenience, prevision, primal, primary, prime, primeval, primitive, primogenial, procreative, prologue, provenience, radical, radix, readiness, rise, root, rudiment, rudimental, rudimentary, running start, setout, source, spring, sprout, start, stem, stock, taproot, time to spare, ur, very beginning, youth
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