begin
verb (used without object)
to proceed to perform the first or earliest part of some action; commence; start.
begin
1 American
[bih-gin]
/ bɪˈgɪn /
verb (used without object)
-
begins,
present (3rd person singular)
-
began,
past
-
begun,
past participle
-
beginning
present participle
-
to proceed to perform the first or earliest part of some action; commence; start.
The story begins with their marriage.
- Antonyms:
- end
-
to come into existence; arise; originate.
The custom began during the Civil War.
verb (used with object)
-
begins,
present (3rd person singular)
-
began,
past
-
begun,
past participle
-
beginning
present participle
-
to proceed to perform the first or earliest part of (some action).
Begin the job tomorrow.
-
to originate; be the originator of.
civic leaders who began the reform movement.
- Synonyms:
- initiate, inaugurate, institute
-
to succeed to the slightest extent in (followed by an infinitive).
The money won't even begin to cover expenses.
Begin
2
American
[bey-gin]
/ ˈbeɪ gɪn /
noun
begin
1
British
/ bɪˈɡɪn /
verb
-
to start or cause to start (something or to do something)
-
to bring or come into being for the first time; arise or originate
-
to start to say or speak
-
(used with a negative) to have the least capacity (to do something)
he couldn't begin to compete with her
-
in the first place
Begin
2
British
/ ˈbɛɡɪn /
noun
begin
Idioms
Synonym Usage
Begin, commence, initiate, start (when followed by noun or gerund) refer to setting into motion or progress something that continues for some time. Begin is the common term: to begin knitting a sweater. Commence is a more formal word, often suggesting a more prolonged or elaborate beginning: to commence proceedings in court. Initiate implies an active and often ingenious first act in a new field: to initiate a new procedure. Start means to make a first move or to set out on a course of action: to start paving a street.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
beginsimple
-
beginssimple
-
have begunperfect
-
has begunperfect
-
am beginningprogressive
-
are beginningprogressive
-
is beginningprogressive
-
have been beginningperfect progressive
-
has been beginningperfect progressive
Past
-
begansimple
-
had begunperfect
-
was beginningprogressive
-
were beginningprogressive
-
had been beginningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of begin
First recorded before 1000; Middle English beginnen, Old English beginnan, equivalent to be- be- + -ginnan “to begin,” perhaps originally “to open,” akin to yawn
Explanation
To begin is to start. When it begins to snow, every flake looks pretty, drifting gently down from the dark sky. When you begin something, you go ahead with its first part or stage — you can begin the day with a good attitude, or begin a very long book over and over again, always falling asleep before you get to chapter two. You also might begin a journey by lacing up your hiking boots. Things also begin when they have a specific element as a first part, as when a word begins with the letter T.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It means they begin this campaign as defending champions - something they have not done since the 2004-05 season.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Write guidance such as “Don’t begin responses by praising the question, idea or plan. Just answer it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
After three seasons at LSU, Rodriguez moved to California to begin her beach volleyball career.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Add pandemic adolescence, expensive housing and stagnant wages, and different choices begin to look less mysterious than inevitable.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
I decided I’d let them begin any conversing that had to occur.
From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan
By rapidly distributing footage of troops entering the fortress, the military echoed a famous 1982 image showing then-defence minister Ariel Sharon and prime minister Menahem Begin at the same spot.
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
Begin with Magic Johnson and Billie Jean King, part of the group that owns the Dodgers and Sparks.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026
As an “American Masters” production, Peabody Award-winner Rita Coburn’s nearly two-hour documentary has an assignment: Begin at laudatory, end at ecstatic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
Begin with minced onion, cooked slowly in the rendered fat until fully softened and translucent.
From Salon ● Apr. 7, 2026
When I was close enough to see the statue s face clearly, I yelled, “Hello, Hermes! Command sequence: Daedalus Twenty-three. Kill Flying Pigs! Begin Activation!”
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
The appointment makes the upcoming camp hugely intriguing as the countdown begins to the new man's first squad announcement.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
The problem, whether in pre-season or when the campaign proper begins, is that results shape narratives.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Julian Hoffman’s remarkable new memoir begins with birds: “The sky was a harbor all of a sudden. Wherever you looked, wings furrowed wakes in the air.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Breeding season begins later in the fall or winter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Ama begins sliding toward the window as well, and Autumn reaches out to grab her ankle.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
Ervine was seven years old when the Troubles began in the late 1960s.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
“I’m always trying to remind him who he is,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday before the Dodgers began a four-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
It’s part of the lodge’s electrified safari program, which began in 2014 with the introduction of a solar-powered safari boat—a continentwide first.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
He began studying the Tar Pits' relatively understudied reptile and amphibian collections while working there as a Postdoctoral Fellow.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
One day he began the actual preparations to become a knight.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
Especially when I realized that what was in the bowl had begun as a five-item farmers market haul, helped along by a few things I already had at home.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
During the same period that Google and DeepMind were navigating their new relationship, a rival lab by the name of OpenAI had begun working on a large language model.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
There, she’d begun to plant her roots in an artistic community, spending most of the last year and some change nestled in with her new flock of bohemian neighbors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
The departure of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will create a major opening in President Donald Trump's administration, and the guessing-game of who will replace her has already begun.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Not quite dinner, but an hour in which Mrs. Dannenberg would likely have begun preparing for the evening meal.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Yet Maresca played down the importance of the result, saying: "It's a defeat that hurts us, but it's just the beginning."
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Iran accused Qatar of holding three of its air force pilots prisoner, deepening a mystery that dates back to the beginning of the war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
After Ohtani received a lubricating Orthovisc injection in his knee at the beginning of the All-Star break, the Dodgers hoped he would pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies on July 22.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
But the company’s AI strategy has faced internal culture clashes and organizational hurdles since the very beginning.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
I was just beginning to think that we were going to pull this off when we came around the corner and ran into Callaway.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
