outset

[ out-set ]

noun

1. the beginning or start:

   I wanted to explain the situation at the outset.

2. outsert.

outset

/ ˈaʊtˌsɛt /

noun

1. a start; beginning (esp in the phrase from ( or at ) the outset )

Word History and Origins

Origin of outset¹

First recorded in 1530–40; out- + set

Idioms and Phrases

see at the outset .

Example Sentences

Goodell and Sills said at the outset that they hoped to use the season to “contribute knowledge and insights that will aid the country’s pandemic response.”

From Washington Post

Ensuring your mask isn’t too big from the outset will help you avoid having to constantly pull your mask back up over your nose and prevent gaps from forming at the sides and bottom.

From Popular-Science

At the outset of the pandemic, hospitals faced a crippling lack of supplies.

From Washington Post

At the outset, this is a 137% increase over the revised healthcare estimates of budget 2020-21.

From Quartz

At the outset — in 2010 — almost every state signed up for one of the two testing consortia.

From Washington Post

But the real money, Washington believed, lay in the western land investments he had made at the outset of the war.

From The Daily Beast

Bill Clinton courted Mixner and his expertise at the outset of his run for president.

From The Daily Beast

Things seem fine at the outset, as they always do—the children are fun and adorable, the husband and wife happy and carefree.

From The Daily Beast

At the outset, only a handful of the victims spoke out about what had happened to them.

From The Daily Beast

Is it day to day, game to game, or do they prepare a master plan from the outset.

From The Daily Beast

Since we are to learn by thinking we must at the outset learn the definition of the three Laws of Thinking.

From Project Gutenberg

Here, however, is the place where the water trouble will first arise, which will have to be provided for at the outset.

From Project Gutenberg

From the very outset of his career in Spain he showed a lack of strategic insight and a want of rapidity of movement.

From Project Gutenberg

Thereupon began a procedure identical to that which had characterized the outset of every successful case of the Chief Inspector.

From Project Gutenberg

Organization was Aguinaldoʼs peculiar talent, without the exercise of which the movement would have failed at the outset.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• beginning