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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

beginning.

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.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/bɪˈɡɪn.ɪŋ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɪ.ɡɪ.nɪŋɡ/India
  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.

    uncountable
  2. That which is begun; a rudiment or element.

    countable · uncountable
  3. That which begins or originates something; the source or first cause.

    countable · uncountable
    What was the beginning of the dispute?
  4. The initial portion of some extended thing.

    countable · uncountable
    The author describes the main character’s youth at the beginning of the story.
    That house is at the beginning of the street.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English biginning, beginninge, beginnunge, equivalent to begin + -ing.

adj/bɪˈɡɪn.ɪŋ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɪ.ɡɪ.nɪŋɡ/India
  1. Being the first portion of some extended thing.

    informal · not-comparable
    in the beginning paragraph of the chapter
    in the beginning section of the course
Where this word comes from

From Middle English begynnyng, bygynnynge, From Old English *beginnende (attested only as Old English onginnende), from Proto-Germanic *biginnandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), equivalent to begin + -ing.

verb/bɪˈɡɪn.ɪŋ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɪ.ɡɪ.nɪŋɡ/India
  1. present participle and gerund of begin

    form-of · gerund · participle · present
    He is beginning to read a new book.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English begynnyng, bygynnynge, From Old English *beginnende (attested only as Old English onginnende), from Proto-Germanic *biginnandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), equivalent to begin + -ing.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.