| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| beginning |
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| SYLLABICATION: | be·gin·ning |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  b -gn ng |
| NOUN: | 1. The act or process of bringing or being brought into being; a start. 2. The time when something begins or is begun: the beginning of the war. 3. The place where something begins or is begun: at the beginning of the road. 4. A source; an origin: What was the beginning of the dispute? 5. The first part: The front matter is at the beginning of the book. 6. An early or rudimentary phase. Often used in the plural: the beginnings of human life on this planet. | | SYNONYMS: | beginning, birth, dawn, genesis, nascence, rise These nouns denote the initial stage of a developmental process: the beginning of a new era in technology; the birth of generative grammar; the dawn of civilization; the genesis of quantum mechanics; the nascence of classical sculpture; the rise and decline of an ancient city-state. | | ANTONYM: | end
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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