initiate.
To begin; to start.
Meaning & usage
To begin; to start.
To instruct in the rudiments or principles; to introduce.
To confer membership on; especially, to admit to a secret order with mysterious rites or ceremonies.
To do the first act; to perform the first rite; to take the initiative.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Latin initiātus, perfect passive participle of initiō (“to begin, originate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from initium (“a beginning”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), from initus (“an entrance, coming in, approach”) + -ium, from ineō + -tus, from in- + eō (“to go”). Cognate with French initier.
A new member of an organization.
One who has been through a ceremony of initiation.
One who is oriented in and familiar with a topic or subject; especially, one who is an expert in it.
Where this word comes from
From a substantivization of the adjective, see -ate (noun-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Cognate with French initié (“an initiate, neophyte”).
Unpracticed, untried, new.
Begun, commenced, introduced to or in the rudiments (of), newly admitted.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Latin initiātus, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.
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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.