• enPR: bĭgĭn'ĭng, IPA: /bɪˈɡɪn.ɪŋ/

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

beginning

1. (uncountable) 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.
2. That which is begun; a rudiment or element.
3. That which begins or originates something; the source or first cause.

   What was the beginning of the dispute?

4. The initial portion of some extended thing.

   The author describes the main character’s youth at the beginning of the story.

   That house is at the beginning of the street.

• (act of doing that which begins anything) commencing, start, starting
• (that which is begun; rudiment or element) element, embryo, rudiment
• (that which begins or originates something) origin, source, start, commencement
• (initial portion of some extended thing) head, start

• (antonym(s) of “act of doing that which begins anything”): conclusion, end

• French: début, commencement
• German: Anfang, Beginn
• Portuguese: começo, início, princípio
• Russian: нача́ло
• Spanish: comienzo, principio, inicio

• French: début, ébauche
• German: Angefangene, Begonnene
• Portuguese: começo, princípio
• Russian: нача́ло
• Spanish: inicio

• French: début, commencement
• German: Beginn
• Italian: inizio
• Portuguese: originador, gerador
• Russian: нача́ло
• Spanish: origen

• French: début
• German: Anfang
• Portuguese: começo, início, princípio
• Russian: нача́ло
• Spanish: principio

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, equivalent to begin + -ing.

1. Present participle and gerund of begin

   He is beginning to read a new book.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o’clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers’ barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one’s eyes ache, the men’s voices grated harshly, and the girls’ faces saddened one.

beginning (not comparable)

1. (informal) Of or relating to the first portion of some extended thing.

   in the beginning paragraph of the chapter

   in the beginning section of the course

• first
• initial