Beginning1. (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Begin.
2. (n.) 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.
3. (n.) That which begins or originates something; the first cause; origin; source.
4. (n.) That which is begun; a rudiment or element.
5. (n.) Enterprise.
Thesaurus Entries
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